Crop Monitoring in Smallholder Farms Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to Facilitate Precision Agriculture Practices: A Scoping Review and Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

In this study, we conducted a scoping review and bibliometric analysis to evaluate the state-of-the-art regarding actual applications of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies to guide precision agriculture (PA) practices within smallholder farms. UAVs have emerged as one of the most promising tools to monitor crops and guide PA practices to improve agricultural productivity and promote the sustainable and optimal use of critical resources. However, there is a need to understand how and for what purposes these technologies are being applied within smallholder farms. Using Biblioshiny and VOSviewer, 23 peer-reviewed articles from Scopus and Web of Science were analyzed to acquire a greater perspective on this emerging topical research focus area. The results of these investigations revealed that UAVs have largely been used for monitoring crop growth and development, guiding fertilizer management, and crop mapping but also have the potential to facilitate other PA practices. Several factors may moderate the potential of these technologies. However, due to continuous technological advancements and reductions in ownership and operational costs, there remains much cause for optimism regarding future applications of UAVs and associated technologies to inform policy, planning, and operational decision-making.

Estimation of Winter Wheat SPAD Values Based on UAV Multispectral Remote Sensing

“…The battery life of UAVs limits the geographical coverage achievable in a single flight, making UAVs less suitable for large-scale agricultural applications [71]. Higher flight altitudes are advantageous for remote sensing monitoring over larger geographic areas.…”

Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System Based on Sliding Mode Control for Quadcopter Trajectory Tracking with the Presence of External Disturbance

“…Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have received extensive attention from the engineering community due to their promising potential in military and civilian applications, such as disaster rescue [1,2], intelligent surveillance [3,4], smart agriculture [5][6][7][8], aerial photography [9,10], mapping [11], industry inspection [12,13] logistics [14][15][16], forest fire-fighting [16], and crop disease monitoring [17][18][19], etc.. Numerous types of UAVs have been fabricated and developed as research platforms, among which the quadcopters (also called quadrotors) are the most popular type because of their considerable merits including autonomous flight, easy construction, simple maintenance, low cost, onboard vision, vertical take-off and landing [20], hovering ability, and manoeuvrability.…”

A systematic review on the factors governing precision agriculture adoption among small-scale farmers

“…In the modern agricultural landscape, precision agriculture (PA) has risen as a revolutionary paradigm, driven by technological advances (Cui et al, 2022). PA, also referred to as site-specific agriculture, satellite farming, precision farming (PF) and smart farming (SmF), is an innovative approach in the agricultural sector that harnesses digital technologies and tools, including information technology, global positioning system (GPS), remote sensing and data analytics (Gokool et al, 2023; Gorai et al, 2017; Mondal and Basu, 2009). By leveraging these technologies, SmF seeks to enhance crop yield, optimise resource utilisation and increase profitability, ensuring a sustainable and efficient farming system.…”

“…While PA seems like the panacea for agricultural challenges ranging from dwindling resources to environmental degradation, its penetration into the realm of small-scale farming is still in nascent stages (Fountas et al, 2015) and demands more academic exploration (Chataut et al, 2023; Gokool et al, 2023; Hedley, 2015; Perz and Wronowski, 2019). The bespoke nature of small-scale farming introduces multi-faceted barriers to the broad-based incorporation of PA (Gabriel and Gandorfer, 2023), encompassing financial constraints (Achukwu et al, 2023; Bosompem, 2021), technical know-how deficits (Yatribi, 2020), infrastructural lapses (Mdoda et al, 2022) and socio-cultural roadblocks (Alexander, 2018).…”