At the beginning of October, we finally get to visit the Guardians project, one of our sister projects. Being funded under the same call, both projects share a similar mission: supporting smaller farmers by giving them better access to digital tools and technologies. Over 4 years, Guardians tests 9 innovative digital solutions across 6 pilot cases. During our visit, we want to learn more about their work and explore potential synergies.
We meet them in the Czech Republic at one of their pilot farms, which is part of the agricultural cooperative ZD Květná. Here, they test how drones could support labour optimisation on a cattle farm.
Strong coffee and drones
The sun is shining, and it’s still warm when we arrive with the Phito Van at the farm, where we meet Prof. František Kumhála from the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZU).
He introduces us to Ing. Josef Nechvíle and Jiří Kolouch, who both work for the agricultural cooperative. We start our visit with a Czech delicacy – strong “turek” coffee and delicious pastries, while talking about both projects and exchanging ideas. We’ve worked with drones before but mostly to film for the Phito Stories, and we are curious how they plan to use drones to optimise labour.
Optimising labour and land management
The farm in Květná is specialised in cattle grazing. With a size of around 500 ha, monitoring and managing the land can be time-consuming. Their GrassGuard drones could make this work a lot easier.
The idea is quite straightforward: A drone flies across the land, captures images of the pasture, creates a georeferenced map and detects ungrazed areas with weeds that need to be removed.
The drone is very easy to use and, once programmed, does almost everything by itself: it takes off, photographs and returns to the starting point, all on its own. The images can then be processed on a computer into geographically referenced orthophotography. A land drone, basically a small robot, can then use these images to identify ungrazed areas and remove weeds.
Since the project is still ongoing, some more testing and calibration are needed before both drones are fully operational, but so far the results look promising.
The drones to optimise farm labour in action
We want to see more and head outside. After a stroll across the farm Ing. Josef Nechvíle proudly shows us his drone. He sees the drone’s potential and has already bought his own. We watch as it takes off flying in a zigzag pattern over the field. In less than 10 minutes, it returns with new images ready for processing.
It’s nice to see different technologies in action and think about how they could contribute to future-proof farming systems. And of course, we think about how our projects could support and benefit from each other to really have an impact.
Could we somehow integrate their findings into the Phito App? Or could our app function as a multiplier by spreading awareness about the technologies they test? These are some of the ideas we would like to explore together.
We end our visit the same way we started it… with a strong coffee and delicious pastries, this time from our mobile office, aka the Phito Van.
Visit the Guardians project
