A number of countries that produce coffee as their major export commodity are using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to protect and nurture their crop yields.  But none, perhaps, is more dedicated to this task than the central African nation of Uganda, the world’s seventh largest coffee producer.  Uganda actually harvests two annual coffee crops, and with drones engaged in everything from yield estimation to disease and pest infestation, this impoverished country of 47 million people is poised to capture an even greater share of the global coffee market.

In 2022, the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), a government agency that oversees all aspects of the nation’s coffee production, established a joint venture partnership with Flying Labs, a UAV technical assistance nonprofit funded in part by the Hewlett Foundation, to gather data on the state of Uganda’s coffee yield, with special attention to identifying areas of poor yield due to a variety of stress factors, including flooding and soil erosion.  Deploying two DJI Phantom 4 Multispectral drones (each with an RGB camera and five monochrome cameras), the combined operations team zeroed in on one area of extremely poor yield in a low-altitude region where the Robusta species was being planted and harvested.  Based on their data, each sector’s harvest potential was rated on a scale from poor to excellent and a comprehensive map of estimated yields created to identify areas of priority attention.  The team’s work was frequently delayed due to inclement weather and recurring technical problems, but despite these obstacles the entire mapping and analysis effort completed in a matter of weeks.

A manual inspection and review effort conducted on foot, would have taken ten times as long, and the results would have covered only those relatively small number of farms sampled, not the entire coffee region.  Armed with more precise data, the UCDA not only knows where to target its remedial efforts, but can approach micro loan financers with better data to justify their investments, based on more accurate risk assessments.

Uganda is not alone in exploiting UAV mapping and software drones to boost coffee production.  Ethiopia, the continent’s most populous nation and its largest coffee producer, has taken the effort one step further.   The country has created coffee yield maps right down to the level of the individual farm cluster.  Prospective buyers are permitted to access those maps and to determine which coffee farms they want to do business with; they can also negotiate prices and shipping arrangements directly with the growers, bypassing government bureaucrats and predatory producer associations.

Experts say these efforts are only the beginning of what UAVs can do to enhance Africa’s export earnings in response to rising global demand for coffee.  Drone data could also be used to test soil quality, identify more promising areas for planting and more carefully calibrate the use of fertilizer and pesticides, reducing input costs and boosting yields even further.  Drones might also be deployed as an alternative shipping and delivery system, allowing freshly picked and aromatically roasted coffee beans to arrive at their final destination – a European bistro, thousands of miles away – to be ground and brewed to the delight of their customers, in a matter of hours.

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