California Vineyard Harnesses The Power Of Drones

Hahn Estate Winery, home to 1,100 acres of grapes in California's Santa Lucia Highlands, is harnessing the power of drones to make great wine despite the state's fourth consecutive year of drought, according to Fortune.

In November, Hahn volunteered a patch of its land and teamed up with PrecisionHawk, a company specializing in drones and aerial data analysis, and Verizon, which developed a platform to synthesize and analyze crop data. Aerial data from PrecisionHawk's drone allowed Hahn to infer canopy cover, and Verizon's ground sensors monitored temperature and soil moisture.

Mark Bartolomeo, leader of Verizon's IoT Connected Solutions division, says, "All of that data goes into the platform, which runs it against our analytics engine, which looks for patterns and anomalies to make recommendations. The idea is, if you're the farmer, it shows exactly what you should do."

The drone at Hahn Winery is only one example of the kind of technology companies are working on to help farmers harvest more efficiently, an increasingly important initiative given the growing global population and the importance of sustainability.