It is great to watch Africa entrepreneurs making a positive impact on the continental commercial drone space. Leka Tingitana, the founder and managing director at Tanzanian drone services company Tanzania Flying Labs is one.

In the dynamic world of drone technology, Leka stands apart as a pillar of Tanzania’s rapidly growing drone landscape; having contributed a great deal of drone-based public services that include mapping out settlements and overseeing the introduction of drone technology to young people in the country.

In the below interview, Leka – a certified drone pilot and instructor – talks about his journey so far, which boats of a robust background in technology transfer and social welfare, and pioneering transformative solutions to pressing societal issues.

On who he is and how he got introduced to drone technology

My journey actually started with the appreciation of how important mapping is to almost every aspect of our lives. Perennial flooding events in the city of Dar es Salaam made me aware around 2016 that there was a lack of drone data to digitise buildings and other infrastructure for crucial work like crisis mapping.

This type of data is required at least once a year to keep up with the growth of the city and this is where my work with drones began.

My first drone flight was with a fixed-wing drone unlike many other pilots who start with quadcopters. This is mainly because there were ongoing large-scale mapping projects in Tanzania and I entered the industry at precisely the right time when the use and acceptance of drones had started to flourish.

On the challenges he faced as a drone newbie and how he overcome them

It was difficult to get certified at the time unless you went overseas so we brought the certification training to Tanzania. I became and still am the first Instructor in East Africa to train and invigilate the UK GVC (General Visual Line of Sight Certificate).

On how he keeps himself up to date with drone developments

I am a member of Flying Labs which is a global network of local drone operators and experts mainly in the Global South. For example, last October I travelled to South Africa at the invitation of the local Flying Labs, hosted a conference in drones for disaster risk management last October.

This is one of the ways I stay up-to-date and share experiences in our local context.

On his baby, Tanzania Flying Labs

Tanzania is low-key the drone capital of Africa and Tanzania Flying Labs was the first Flying Labs in Africa. As I mentioned before we entered the industry at the perfect time when mapping drones like the DJI Phantom 4 Pro were just getting popular, and we used them in other sectors like agriculture as well.

Essentially, our main mission is to train new pilots and analysts to use drones for development goals as defined by the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We have trained pilots from Sierra Leone all the way South to Namibia.

On his role at Tanzania Flying Labs

Like every startup I wear multiple hats; of which one of my most important roles is story telling. I have realised the importance of this skill over the years and I enjoy it very much.

My days are atypical because I have field days and office days. Training is one of our core missions, and community engagement is certainly one of our pillars. The ability to translate gigabytes of data to an actionable visual in the local context is the art.

On some of his memorable experiences on this journey so far

As you might be aware Tanzania is one of the cradles of mankind. I really enjoyed working with an archaeologist from Kenya to digitise an important historical site in Northern Tanzania called Engaruka. I wish to do more for heritage conservation with drones in the future.

We have collaborated with many organizations and academic institutions in Tanzania. For example, our work with World Vision is currently helping to reduce deforestation in Central Tanzania.

On some the drones they use on the job

Our first project in precision agriculture started in 2018 with a NASA partnered project to ground-truth satellite data for food security in Tanzania. This is where I learned about vegetation indices like the NDVI to monitor crop health and how to acquire multispectral data with drones.

Since then, more and more medium- and large-scale commercial farmers are demanding drone data to increase yields and reduce expenses.

This year, we acquired the Mavic 3M, which has a flight time of over 45 minutes. This extended duration enables us to map larger farms with a single battery, surpassing what was possible just a few years ago.

Its RGB camera is a standout which makes the drone versatile in terms of use-cases other than agriculture. We are currently using the Mavic 3M in a mango and acid-lime farm to monitor tree health.

On the impact of drone technology in Tanzania

Hands down the most successful story is one of my former students becoming one of the premier drone spraying operators in the East Africa region. I actually didn’t believe drone spraying would literally take-off the way it has. Crop spraying drones have seen a really rapid adoption in the country’s agricultural industry.

The Agras T40 has become the current industry standard and I remember back in 2019 we were using the first model (MG-1S) with a 10L tank in rice fields to spray larvicide.

On the challenges of operating commercial drones in Tanzania

Tanzania adopted drone technology early and we were also one of the first countries to draft drone regulations in Africa. But we still have issues with maintenance and repair due to lack of certified technicians.

It’s expensive and impractical to send drones to countries like South Africa to get repaired when we can do the same at home.

The opportunities are boundless when you consider that only three percent of the land in Africa is mapped to local scale compared to 90 percent in Europe. This alone should keep the entire drone industry busy for a lifetime but so are other opportunities like precision agriculture which employs about 70 percent of the population.

On his views on the future

Swiss Army type drones like the Mavic 3M is more of what I want to see. The RTK is a critical bonus to improve the accuracy of geotagged data and in the past, we have had to pay the price of the Mavic 3M to get the RTK activated in other non-DJI drones.

Combining this with the longer flight time and we should be good to go.

Advancements can be incremental like adding a thermal sensor but also, we need more heat tolerant drones due to our tropical climate. More local capacity to repair the drones is also needed.

I also envision Tanzania Flying Labs as a geospatial centre of excellence providing not only training but data and AI processing services, analysis and visualisation.

On his advice for aspiring agriculture drone pilots

My advice to any Drone Pilot is for them to understand that they should earn the title of calling themselves pilots and follow standard and safety operating procedures.

An agriculture drone pilot is unique in that he/she is involved in both monitoring and intervention of crops and therefore they must first learn some agronomy basics to understand crop health, soil quality, spraying and related subjects.

This is the only way to advise the farmer accurately to increase yields and save money.

Let’s not lose focus that most of the farmers in the region are so-called small-holders to whom drone technology is completely out-of-scope. Their farms feed the family and buy things like school uniforms, and they are very vulnerable. We need to reach these farmers and offer the promise of drone data and AI.