DRONES AND POTATOES: NOT YOUR TYPICAL COMBO

Jaclyn Figg

Staff Writer

Money doesn’t grow on trees, but it does grow on agricultural crops like beet and potato crops.

An associate professor in the department of geosciences at ISU, Donna Delparte, is spearheading research in developing spectral signatures to detect plant virus infections in individual potato plants.

“This project is pretty experimental, pretty brand new,” Delparte said. “No one’s really looked at using this technology before,”

The research focuses on collecting hyperspectral data using unmanned aerial vehicles over agricultural fields in eastern Idaho, specifically potato and sugar beet farms. 

A camera used to shoot pictures in the field gives a response curve of the electro-magnetic spectrum.

The readings show the healthy plants versus which plants have a virus, and to the naked eye plants can look the same. A spectral response identifies the sick plants.

“With that spectral fingerprint we can go into the field and look at this image and by using that curve we can tell what plants are sick,” Delparte said. 

Delparte teamed up with others from the University of Idaho and Boise State University to turn a proposal in to the United States Department of Agriculture in 2014.

The grant enabled Delparte to begin research, setting up base information to get them started.

Bought from a company in Finland, the cameras cost around $50,000.

The Idaho Global Entrepreneurial Mission contributed a grant to help with this cost and further research.

Future Farmers of America have strict guidelines for drone flight over agricultural fields – the approval process can take up to six months.

“Luckily it’s good for about two years,” Delparte said.

Though a pilot must be on scene, an automated flight program controls the drones and they fly a preprogrammed flight plan.

Mission Planner is the software used to make the flight plans.

“It’s really neat that a big driver of all this technology and advancement in drones is coming from the do-it-yourself sector,” she added.

She purchased the drones from a company called Steady Drone and then the College of Technology modified them.

“The College of Technology has an amazing electronics program,” Delparte said. “Anytime I have had any little issue they have been able to fix it, or if I need to wire in a camera they just wire it all together for me.”

Mike Griffel, a graduate student in the Geoscience Department, aids Delparte with her research; he grew up on a potato seed farm.

“[Griffel] has a really good eye,” Delparte said. “As a kid he would have to walk through these fields and pull out random sick plants by visually detecting it.”

With the right conditions and a trained eye, you can see a bit of bubbly pattern in the leaf.

“I can’t tell, I look at the plants, not having that trained eye, I can’t tell if a plant is sick,” Delparte said, “he’ll look ‘mmm this one looks a little suspect.’”

Using a field as an example, with his assessment of where about sick plants could be, they made a flight plan for drones to fly over with a camera.

“I’ve worked in agriculture almost my entire life and have seen how destructive plant viruses can be relative to potato production,” Griffel said.

Aphids bite a sick plant then bite healthy plants spreading disease, the virus is then in the seed of the potato and there is potential for a reduction in the overall crop yield.

Delparte and Griffel used a research extension center of the University of Idaho and the USDA to further the research.

The center is a greenhouse that consists of 250 plants stemmed from a seed infected with a virus.

To take the spectral readings, a fiber optic cable attached to a spectrometer connected to a little gun is pointed at the sick plant.

Over 250 shots are taken of the different spectrums, which then have to be compressed into one to see the virus.

According to Delparte this is a lengthy project; it can take up to four days to finish.

Identifying infected plants will help growers better deal with the problem and hopefully reduce the use of pesticides.

“This could help reduce the use of pesticides on seed potato crop, and help commercial growers using the seed achieve higher yields and quality,” Griffel said. “This would make all the fertility and irrigation inputs the much more efficient.”

This research is a great opportunity for people all over Idaho, according to Departe, with commercial potential that could lead to an Idaho product to bringing in jobs and industry investment.

“It’s a win-win for both potato farmers, consumers and environmental sustainability,” Griffel said.