Yield estimation

Is it possible to know how much yield I am going to get weeks before harvesting? The use of drone technology can help us answer this question.

Although pistachio cultivation is a minority one in Spain, during the last decade its surface area has grown exponentially to 32.114 ha (Magrama 2019), partly due to the high profitability of the crop. Additionally, the climatic conditions in our country and the increase of product demand are other reasons of its fast implementation.

New crops. New solutions. Drone technology provides great solutions for pistachio cultivation. In addition to calculating water needs or estimating nitrogen needs, depending on the phenological stage of the crop, the great value lies in the estimation of production by calculating the volume of the vegetative canopy.

This is a non-destructive method, in which the canopy volume of the crop is calculated after a drone flight, weeks before harvesting is due to take place.

This way we offer the farmer an estimation of the final yield that he will get in the actual season. This information is useful in order to have costs and profits information even before product commercialisation.