Photogrammetric software performance for estimating maize above-ground biomass using UAVs

Estimating maize biomass is a manual, destructive method subject to variability. The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) allows for the acquisition of high-resolution images of crop canopies and, through software, facilitates the estimation of above-ground biomass. The objective was to evaluate the performance of the photogrammetric software Agisoft Metashape and Pix4Dmapper in estimating above-ground maize biomass under field conditions. The experimental design adopted was a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications, and the treatments consisted of eight maize hybrids (2A510 PW, B2360 PWU, B2433 PWU, B2612 PWU, B2688 PWU, CD3410 PW, DKB255 PRO3, DKB363 PRO3). The Agisoft Metashape (R2 = 0.89) and Pix4Dmapper (R2 = 0.82) software demonstrated high experimental precision in estimating above-ground biomass. The maize hybrids DKB255 PRO3 and B2433 PWU showed the highest and lowest biomass productivity, respectively. Integrating UAVs with photogrammetric techniques proves effective in estimating maize biomass under field conditions.