DJI AGRAS T30 The Future Of Crop Spraying Drone’s
As drone insurance brokers, we pride ourselves on making sure we understand the industry, dedicate ourselves to keeping up to date with drone news, current technologies and what our manufacturers and clients make use of.
Ruben Delmage from Agrones invited us for a demo afternoon with the team from PACSys Agricultural to inspect the NEW Agras T30 Crop Sprayer, and what an incredible experience it was.
It’s big…very big.
Let’s talk about the drone and how it was built:
After its predecessors, the DJI Agras MG 1 and Agras T16, the Agras T30 is a veritable UAV beast and a fascinating machine. Equipped with a 30L operation tank that is capable of spraying up to 8 litres per minute, 16 spray nozzles able to spray up to 9m, covering 16 hectares in just 60 minutes. It is a new benchmark in crop spraying drone technology.
The Agras T30 comes with a specialised orchid configuration, opening it up to not only the standard corn, sugarcane and rice fields operation, it is now able to assist in orchid fields with pesticides and even distribution of trees.
Safety
The Agras T30 integrates with the DJI Phantom 4 RTK to assist operators with a 3D model of the orchid and plan a precise flight path. This ensures the operation is safely carried out through controlled systems, meaning pilot error can be avoided should the correct input be uploaded, and proper training applied. With a resistance rating of IP67 against dust and water, this model is a waterproof aircraft, which assists with over water operations spaying vegetation such as hyacinth.
With front and rear PFV cameras to assist the pilot with a 360 view of their operation. As with the earlier T16, the Agras T30 sports a spherical radar system to assist with complicated terrain following, and omnidirectional obstacle avoidance to help with automatic detours
The Agras T30 is extremally safe to operate, and we as insurers now have a more in depth understanding as to the way it flies. Allowing us to offer calculated insurance options for our clients working on building the drone crop spraying industry together.
Easy to store
Why insurance for the Agras ?
We all know that accidents do happen, even with all the “bells and whistles” this machine offers. There will always be a great risk involved when flying over crops. With the drone’s maximum take-off weight of 76kg when at full capacity, should a battery malfunction or the craft clip a rogue tree branch, the force of the drone might cause a catastrophic accident. Our largest concern when it comes to crop spraying, is the liability risk involved and crop loss due to fire. With the Drones Lithium Battery, this is factored into our calculations.
As a commercial operation in South Africa, you will be required to take out a minimum of Third-party liability insurance to cover losses caused by the drone. Our registered pilots and drone operational companies have such policies in place already and we are able to offer that peace of mind to any clients they work with.
With the drone’s market valuation retailing at approximately R350,000, some companies would prefer to take out asset finance on the Agras T30, and in that case, will require drone Insurance to assist them with cover should the drone be damaged or stolen.
With that being said, we feel extremely confident in the training received and the safety checks carried out by our registered pilots. This allows us to offer competitive cover to clients that not only aids them in saving on their premium, but also provides the pilot with the trust that they are correctly insured for all scenarios.
The size of this UAV is incredible
Can I fly a Agras T30 without a licence?
Yes, but not in South Africa.
As per the SACAA regulation: No object or substance shall be released, dispensed, dropped, delivered or deployed from a remotely piloted aircraft except by the holder of a registered operator certificate and as approved by the Director in operators’ operations manual.
Not only do you require a remote pilot’s licence and also fly with a registered operator’s certificate, you also require a pest control operations (PCO) certificate to dispense pesticide.
Flying the Agras T30 is a very specialised operation and do we urge farmers to look at rather obtaining a licenced pilot or working with a specialized company to spray on your behalf.
Closing:
The Agras T30 is an incredible machine, and we hope to see more of them assisting our farmers across South Africa in the near future. Should you wish to find out more or to look at obtaining more information on insurance in the drone industry, please do not hesitate to contact us at UIB.
