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Walmart files patent applications for farm automation

Walmart Inc. has submitted patent applications for a range of technologies it intends to use for automated farming.

The patents include drones, or what the retail giant called "unmanned aerial vehicles," that would be able to collect pollen from one flower of a crop and transport it to the flower of a different crop, according to documents filed September 2017 with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Walmart also filed patent applications for other farm-focused systems and methods using the unmanned aerial vehicles, such as dispensing insecticides on targeted areas, identifying pests that can damage crops and defending the crops from the crop-damaging pests.

The move allows Walmart to control more of its supply chain at the source as it looks to compete better with Amazon.com Inc., according to a March 8 report by CB Insights.