Cacao growers in Ecuador are using drones to combat labor shortage

Ecuador is the world’s leading export of cacao, the chief ingredient in single-origin chocolates. Over 90% of the cacao production in the country is undertaken by small farm owners. But a downward trend in crop prices and labor shortage during the busy season has left farmers struggling to improve efficiency and remain profitable. This is why they have now turned to drones for fruit tree spraying.

XAG, one of the top three commercial drone manufacturers of 2021, has detailed in a new blog post how its partner company Megadrone was recently contracted to manage a 180-hectare cacao farm in Guayaquil, the second largest city in Ecuador.

The cacao farm in question is located on a mountain, and its sloped, undulating terrain makes it hard to reach by large ground machinery. Over the years, hired workers have manually sprayed the crops and spread fertilizers on the farm. This process would take at least a month, even with sufficient labor.

This growing season, however, the farm deployed two XAG P series agricultural drones, and wrapped up fertilizer and fungicide spraying in less than four days.

Source: https://dronedj.com/2022/07/14/agricultural-xag-drones-cacao-ecuador/