A farmer sprays pesticide at a rice paddy in the city of Suncheon, South Jeolla Province, southwestern South Korea, on Aug. 11, 2020, after Typhoon Jangmi passed over the country the previous day. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Oct. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — A new technology has been developed that makes it easier to measure the acreage of rice plants that have been damaged due to rain or wind.
The Korea Seed and Variety Service on Thursday demonstrated technology that can automatically measure the acreage of damaged rice plants using a drone in Gimje, North Jeolla Province.
After a drone took a photo of the area of damaged rice crops, an automatic decoding program analyzed the image to calculate the acreage of the area.
The program was developed jointly by the Korea Seed and Variety Service and the Korea Electronics Technology Institute.
Prior to the demonstration, researchers enhanced the accuracy of calculation by analyzing about 20,000 photos of rice fields that had experienced damaged rice plants since 2018.
In addition to the damaged rice plants, another technology that can calculate the ratio of rice with bakanae disease in the crop field is also in its final stages of completion. This technology will be used for inspection of the disease from next year.
Another program that can automatically recognize the color of new varieties of rice is also under development. It will be used for the evaluation of new varieties from next year.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
