When three years ago the first operational use of the drones in the fight against mosquitoes, those who conceived such an application could not have accurately predicted its enormous potential. Spraying drones did not exist at that time in the Greek market and their representatives, because they were something very new, did not know in detail how to operate them. However, as there was a need to deal with large mosquito populations in inaccessible areas, and satellite photos were unattainable, the company «Ecodevelopment», which is active in mosquito control projects throughout Greece, decided to include drones in its potential.
«Drones are spraying areas inaccessible, for example in rugged marshes, next to villages. In this sense, their use has solved accessibility problems in difficult terrain and upgraded the role of the sprayer, as it requires an operator licensed by the Civil Aviation Authority,» the vice-president of «Ecodevelopment» points out to APE-MPA, George Iatrou. And, he says, the financial cost may be three times that of a simple spray, but the advantages of drones include the ability to approach places where spraying would not otherwise be possible, participation in research projects and the future combination of their operation with satellite data, which are now accessible at a low financial cost.
«The mosquito control programmes are multiannual, implemented by the Regions while there is a requirement to operate drones. The mosquito needs generalised application geographically as it can multiply in other areas and significantly affect other, neighbouring areas, as is the case, for example, in rice fields of Halastra and the «collateral» burden on the Kalochori. Drones are coming to fill this gap,» he underlines. At the same time, he stresses that this is a way to intervene in emergency cases and in massive mosquito breeding outbreaks that make ground spraying ineffective.
On the other hand, drones are used in precision agriculture applications for analysing cultivated soils, monitoring crop yield and fruit growth, seed dispersal and aerial spraying. Iatrou notes that this application was pioneered in Greece six years ago, while the purchase of drones was gradual with the first vehicles being used to record data on crops. «Drones are used in the field. vineyards and fruit crops. Aerial spraying is done seasonally in the summer,» he says.
Regarding the operation and use of these flying vehicles, the vice president of «Ecodevelopment» stresses that it is necessary to support their operation from the Greek market and normalize it by using common systems in batteries and chargers, which are quite expensive materials. In any case, he refers to a rapidly evolving sector in the fields of data analysis, the development of spraying technologies, the transport of goods, the cleaning of areas, etc. Finally, he stresses that the needs in terms of targeted aerial spraying are increasing, so there is a future for drones and this prescribes future -technological- developments for their development and use.
