Carbon sequestration has been the subject of several studies over the last few decades, some of which are still ongoing to assess its effectiveness and impact on the reduction of Carbon Dioxide emissions. Today we are going to answer the following questions: **what is Carbon Sequestration? What are the benefits of Carbon Sequestration? How can drones help with Carbon Sequestration?** Keep reading and find out how carbon sequestration and our drones can help you to **#ONEUPYOURBUSINESS**.

## HOW IS CARBON DIOXIDE PRODUCED?

Carbon Dioxide is the most common greenhouse gas released to the atmosphere and is made in two main ways:

  - By animals, which exhale Carbon Dioxide as result of the respiration process
  - By human activities, mainly energy production and driving internal combustion cars

## WHAT IS CARBON SEQUESTRATION?

Carbon Sequestration is a method of reducing the amount of atmospheric Carbon Dioxide by capturing it and storing it.

There are two main types of Carbon Sequestration:

  - Geological
  - Biological

## WHAT IS GEOLOGICAL CARBON SEQUESTRATION?

Geological Carbon Sequestration is a process in which the Carbon Dioxide is separated from other gases that are released to the atmosphere, compressed into a liquid and then injected into porous rock surfaces like sedimentary rocks, the deep ocean or even empty oil reservoirs. 

## WHAT IS BIOLOGICAL CARBON SEQUESTRATION?

Biological Carbon Sequestration is the process of storing atmospheric Carbon Dioxide by promoting vegetation growth.

## HOW ARE CARBON SEQUESTRATION AND ORGANIC FARMING LINK TOGETHER? SOIL ORGANIC MATTER

They key element that links Carbon Sequestration and Organic Farming is **soil organic matter**.

Soil organic matter consists of plants and animal residue that are decomposed by a range of micro-organisms. The impact on soil fertility is crucial, as this decomposition process releases nutrients back into the soil.

There are several ways of increasing soil organic matter:

  - Cultivating perennial crops like grass for pasture or legumes
  - Use of animal manure, crop residues or composts

By promoting the soil’s health, the number of micro-organisms increase, which in turn accelerate the decomposition rate and therefore the number of nutrients released into the soil.

Increasing soil organic matter has a plethora of benefits for organic farming:

  - Healthier crops
  - Higher yields and therefore bigger profits
  - The soil becomes more resistant to erosion
  - Better moisture retention
  - Reduced costs by using less fertiliser
  - Increased Carbon Sequestration

The most conservative calculations estimate that by every 0.1% increase on soil organic matter per hectare there would be almost 9 tonnes of additional sequestered Carbon Dioxide.

## HOW CAN DRONES HELP WITH CARBON SEQUESTRATION?

There are several key metrics to monitor when you are going through Carbon Sequestration:

  - Soil type
  - Soil temperature
  - Soil pH
  - Micro-organism analysis
  - Soil moisture analysis

Our fleet of multi-rotor and fixed-wing drones can accurately assess the progress and effectiveness of your Carbon Sequestration strategy by producing two different types of comprehensive and detailed thermal reports of the soil. 

When you are effectively sequestering Carbon Dioxide, your soil will have a very consistent and uniform temperature across the whole area. This temperature will also be higher than soils that aren’t retaining Carbon Dioxide. 

With the correct Carbon Sequestration strategy the difference between the lowest and highest temperature of your soil will be minimal, and our thermal camera will produce a very uniform image. Take a look at the two images below, the one that contains more blue was taken in a field that did not sequester Carbon Dioxide, whilst the image that is uniform was taken in a field with an effective Carbon Sequestration strategy.

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We explain what is Carbon Sequestration, what are its benefits, how are Carbon Sequestration and Organic Farming linked, and how can drones help.

Carbon Sequestration Explained

When we meet with local farmers they ask us the same question: **how drones can be useful for agriculture and farming?** In this article today we are going to take a look at **different use cases for drones within the agriculture and farming industry**, how they can make your processes more streamlined and help you to **#ONEUPYOURBUSINESS**.

## REDUCE COSTS, MITIGATE RISKS AND MAXIMISE EFFICIENCY WITH REAL-TIME RESULTS, THERMAL AND MULTISPECTRAL INFORMATION

If you have hired manned airplanes or satellites in the past, you know that they are extremely expensive and take anything from days to weeks to schedule the operation with them. On top of that, in many cases their sensors are not using the latest available technology or lack adequate maintenance or calibration.

With drones you can get a high-resolution map in a matter of minutes at much lower cost exactly when you need it the most, like when you have an invasive species or a potential infection, which will help your business prevent catastrophic situations.

Our drones with thermal cameras and multispectral sensors can stream the information in real-time to a screen, all while analysing the results and identifying problematic areas. When the inspection is completed and the map is produced, you can then pinpoint the specific sections of your field that could require further inspection from the ground. This is a much more efficient process, saving you time, money and getting rid of the necessity of walking all around the field inspecting the crops.

## COVER MORE GROUND WITH FIXED-WING DRONES

If you own several hundreds or even thousands of hectares, fixed-wing drones are perfect for the job. **Our fleet of drones can cover up to 400 hectares per hour with a single battery charge and are capable using a high-resolution image camera with 0.7 centimetre per pixel resolution**, a cutting-edge thermal camera that captures data at 30 Hz or the industry-leading multispectral sensor, gathering all the data that you required to make the most informed decisions about the condition of your farm.

## DRONES ENSURE THAT YOU ARE DOING SOIL CARBON SEQUESTRATION RIGHT

Carbon sequestration is a crucial technique for organic farming that has several key benefits:

  - **Better plant growth**
  - **Increase of soil organic matter**
  - **Better soil water retention**
  - **Reduction of fertiliser use**

In order to analyse that you are effectively sequestering carbon, drones equipped with thermal cameras can measure the soil temperature and its variability. You want to have a temperature that is as homogenous as possible, with minimal variations between lowest and highest values.

As with other thermal survey, we prefer to do this type of inspection in the early morning or early evening, when the sun is low and does not affect the results.

With an initial inspection at the beginning of the carbon sequestration process and regular surveys afterwards, you will be able to keep track of the progress and adjust your methods to ensure success.

## DETECT EVEN THE SMALLEST OF DEFECTS WITH UNRIVALLED RESOLUTION

For the utmost critical of inspections in high value crops, those in which you absolutely and positively need to see even the smallest of details to make sure that you do not potentially loose the crop to an outbreak, we can provide you with an **unrivalled resolution of 1 millimetre per pixel**, which will let you see you the dreaded black mold in a head of broccoli.

This high-accuracy visual inspection combined with the positioning data will let you **cut down costs by fumigating only the specific sections that you need**.

## IMPROVE YOUR IRRIGATION SYSTEMS AND SPOT DRAINING ISSUES WITH DRONES

Once your crop’s growing season has ended and your harvest is over, a thermal survey with drones can give you valuable information to assess the effectiveness of your irrigation and draining systems by highlighting the areas that are wetter. With this data you can have a much more efficient and cost effective irrigation setup.

While your field is bare, the drone multispectral sensor will identify weeds and pests, so you can get rid of them very early on and your new crops will have the best chances to grow healthy and profitable.

## INTEGRATION WITH AGREMO AND MACHINE LEARNING

Drone survey results for farming and agriculture can be integrated with [Agremo](https://www.agremo.com/analyses_overview.html "Agremo"), which is an application that produces reports about plant count, disease and weeds detection, ascertain flowering time and a lot more information.

Alongside this integration, our state-of-the-art software has Machine Learning which will give you a visual comparison of the recurring inspections of your field, being able to spot issues and discrepancies as soon as the results are processed and helping you to get ready for the next season.

## GET HIGHER LOSS PERCENTAGE WITH MORE PRECISE DATA FROM DRONES

If unfortunately you have experienced a loss due to a major weather event, you know that insurance adjusters’ evaluations can vary greatly, usually giving you a lower loss percentage. When you are in this situation, drones can assess the damage very quickly and efficiently, giving the insurance adjusters much better data for them to evaluate your field more accurately and giving you usually a higher loss percentage.

## ANIMAL COUNT AND LOCALISATION WITH DRONES

For herds that very large in numbers in remote or difficult-to-access locations drones are an ideal tool to ensure the accuracy of the animal count and localisation without risking the farmer’s safety and much more quickly, with the added bonus of permanent video evidence and exact GPS location.


We explore how our drones are changing the game for farmers by saving them time and money, helping them to become more sustainable, efficient and profitable.

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