Drone Farming - The Next Big Thing According To Walmart

In order to keep up with the competition of Amazon, Walmart is looking to the future.

Knowing that a big part of its clientele (rural USA) will, firstly, come to them no matter what and, secondly, is not that into ordering online just yet, they are developing something for the future of farming.

Especially for this reason, Walmart applied for six patents last year on drones that aim to prevent damage to crops.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Walmart’s patent filings hint that it may see a future where farmers use its drones to not only spot crop problems but selectively apply chemicals or even disperse pollen to bring shoppers the freshest and cheapest food possible…</p>&mdash; Don Zeus (@DonZeusGlobal) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonZeusGlobal/status/974196817557622784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 15, 2018</a></blockquote>

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Just last week, the U.S. Patents and Trademark Office released the documents showing these patents.

Mr Jayson Lusk, head of agricultural economics at Purdue University said: “Companies like Walmart for a long time have created sustainability initiatives and this is really where the rubber is meeting the road. A way how this might come down is the imposition of standards on their suppliers.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Walmart?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Walmart</a> applied for 6 patents for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/agautomation?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#agautomation</a> - According to <a href="https://twitter.com/CBinsights?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CBinsights</a> applications propose using <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/drones?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#drones</a> to identify pests attacking crops, monitor crop damage, spray pesticides, and pollinate crops <a href="https://t.co/Q3OLcBP2om">https://t.co/Q3OLcBP2om</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/agtech?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#agtech</a> <a href="https://t.co/3CqHLUWvTR">pic.twitter.com/3CqHLUWvTR</a></p>&mdash; Prassack Advisors (@PrassackAdvsrs) <a href="https://twitter.com/PrassackAdvsrs/status/971923446916526081?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2018</a></blockquote>

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At this moment, groceries still make up some 56 percent of the world’s biggest retailer’s total revenue and Walmart may see drone technology as an easy way to get food from farms to store shelves faster and more cheaply (and thus to compete with Amazon.com Inc which stunned the market when it purchased Whole Foods Market last year).

A few years ago, Walmart applied for a patent where drones would monitor crops’ growing conditions and send data to the store as to when and where produce might arrive. The latest series of six applications simply shows that Walmart is looking into farming more seriously.

Source:

https://www.businessinsider.nl/walmart-robot-bees-farming-patent-2018-3/