News item from the Mundo Drone archive, published 20 April 2020. Text merged on 28 October 2026 from all its 2020 versions; specifications, availability and regulations may have changed since.
In these times of staying at home, some sectors have been described as essential: sanitation, security, supply, cleaning... all those professions behind our basic needs. As teleworking - for whom it can -, layoffs and TENs grow, there is one sector that needs to remain at the bottom of the canyon: agriculture does not shut down, as the work of farmers is fundamental to ensuring food supply.
But the workers in the primary sector - farmers, farmers, fishermen... - also want to be safe in the face of the health situation, and of course to extreme the measures of hygiene and social distancing.
The fear of exposure is real and the only way to avoid it is by staying at home, but how can those who engage in such essential activity such as fruit, vegetable or cereal production minimize transfers?
Technological innovations and precision agriculture have become the best solution for farmers to control their crops remotely.
Farmers can know everything that happens on their land from mobile or computer in real time, without having to move to their farms and thus reduce their exposure.
This is the proposal of Paintec , a company founded a couple of years ago in Ejea de los Caballeros (Zaragoza) that proposes a comprehensive platform of agricultural management based on data that comes from drones, sensors and satellites . In short, “an app with which to carry the field in your pocket and observe all the changes that occur in it”, they say from the company.
Interest in technologies in the agricultural sector is growing
Since March 15, the number of visits to technology of this company has skyrocketed by 24%. The tool was born with the objective of “improving the productivity and efficiency of a sector in which only 7.1% of farmers regularly use new technologies,” according to a survey launched by the company itself.
The scenario that its creators imagined, of course, was not the one we live in, but the truth is that the platform can be a very useful resource in the current situation: “It allows to minimize the displacements to the plots to make the tracking of the crops on foot. Although these transfers are allowed, the less they are made, the lower the risk for the producers,” says José Manuel Ruiz, co-founder of Paintec with his partner Cristian Aldaz.
From the air, piloted drones and satellites generate spatial images that the tool processes to provide the farmer with all the information he needs, such as to detect weeds. All of this by minimizing displacements .
What is precision farming?
In the face of traditional agriculture, the so-called precision agriculture allows to optimise resources, use the precise amount of resources and minimize the impact of its cultivation on the environment. Placed on the ground, sensors measure parameters such as soil depth, salinity, texture, and water retention capacity.
According to this company, those who use their services have achieved “a reduction of approximately 15% in input use, while their productivity has increased by 5%”.
The orchard at a click
With the platform farmers can increase the production of their farms and optimise resources as precious as water from their computer , although “they will soon be able to do so also from their own smartphones, ” adds Ruiz.
Its handling is very simple and is based on a business model ‘freemium’ in which most services are free, such as digitization, satellite monitoring and agroclimatic information associated with the plot.
A3 Paintec also offers other more advanced premium services, such as the calculation of water needs, the creation of fertiliser prescription maps, sowing and production estimation or the creation of digital field notebooks.
In addition, from the tool itself the farmer will be able to acquire devices such as probes, stations or sensors for the machinery, as well as hire flights with drones.
Source: 20 minutes.es