The latest innovation in Calasparra´s emblematic rice fields is the use of drones to fumigate the new plants as a measure of plague control and water economy.
The drones can also be used in agriculture to take multispectral images, which measure the vegetal vigour through the radiation emitted by the plants and thermal images, which can detect «water stress» in the plants and can be used to optimise the use of water and use precision irrigation strategies.
The use of drones may save between 500 and 1,000 litres of water per hectare or application. In the case of rice the irrigation per hectare has passed from 500 litres to eight litres representing a saving of 2,040 litres of water per hectare of rice.
