Agricultural Drones Market: Data Collection with an Eye in the Sky

The agricultural drones market is poised to yield phenomenal profits, according to a newly released business intelligence report from IndustryARC. The analyst of the report attributes advancements in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are the primary factor that will drive global agricultural drones market value expansion at a CAGR of 9% during the forecast period of 2018 to 2023. By 2023, the report estimates the global agricultural drones market size to be $15 billion. The report is titled “Agricultural Drones Market: By Type (Fixed Wings, Rotary Wings, Hybrid Wings and Software type); By Components (Flight Controllers, Propulsion Systems, Camera System, Batteries and GPS); By Battery Life ( 30 Min, 30-60 Min, 60-100 Min and 100 Min); By Applications (Crop Analysis, Field Mapping, Agricultural Photography); By Geography – Forecast (2018 - 2023).”

Evolution of drones, or UAVs, has marked a game-changing scenario in agriculture. Sugarcane farms of Central America, corn fields of South Asia, and several other food and commercial farms across the globe are witnessing the use of drones for crop spraying. The highly maneuverable drones act as top-dresser of crops by spraying them with fertilizers, fungicides, and pesticides. The attractive features of the products available in the agricultural drones marketplace, compact in size and light in weight, allows effective spraying in uneven parts of the farm, which is otherwise impossible to reach using tractors. Moreover, drones are capable of spraying pesticides and fertilizers with greater precision, and significantly reduce the economic burden and environmental pollution.

 

Besides crop spraying, agriculture drones market is disrupted by the possibility to entering into a wide array of agricultural applications, ranging from soil analysis, sowing crops, and irrigation management to crop health assessment. These devices also help to detect issues across the fields during the mid and later seasons of the crops.

 

Drones are referred to as “an eye in the sky” based on its ability to combine the data collection hardware with the analytic tools and interpret the data and images to provide actionable information. Typical information captured in a single fly of drone can include vegetation index (NDVI), plant counts, soil and H2O levels, soil temperature, topography, and many other information.

Dennis Bowman, a University of Illinois Extension educator and an expert in the agricultural drones market technologies opined in a recent press release that the opportunity to see a bigger picture of their field is driving the interest of growers towards the drone technology.(i) Explaining the importance of drones in agriculture, he also added “When the corn is up over your head, it’s hard to see what’s going on throughout the entire field.  The opportunity to get this picture from the air, to be able to see what’s going on at the far end of a 120-acre field that’s not easily visible from the road, you can do a better job of seeing all the things that might be going on.” 

Utilization of these flying robots provide several advantages including integrated GIS mapping, reduced time and cost of farming, and early detection of defective plants. Several studies have proved the increase in quantity and quality of production with the use of drones in agriculture. 

Advancements in the fields of automation, electronics and semiconductors, and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has revolutionized the agricultural drones market across the globe. The need for effective management of farm and crop data resulted in a lucrative dive of communication technologies and mobile applications in agriculture. Knowledge on the use of sensors and cameras in effective management of agricultural inputs and pest control laid the foundation for the agriculture drones market, which now is evolving beyond nascent stage. The intelligence of agricultural drones in land use monitoring and precision farming is also a factor that motivates the utilization of these devices. Furthermore, the use of drones in tree farms to provide real-time health and growth information of individual trees can help the farmers in early detection of non-growing trees. According to a recent statement by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the number of non-model unmanned aircraft systems in the U.S. surpassed 110 thousand units in 2017 and nearly 17% of these systems are used for agricultural applications.(ii)

Besides the boosters, there exists several challenges associated with the adoption of drones in agriculture. The use of agricultural drones is subjected to several regulations posed by the regulatory bodies, such as Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and others. According to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United States), as of April 2016, 73 countries of African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) Group regulated the use of agricultural drones in their airspace.(iii) In the U.S., small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) regulations mandates a drone pilot license(iv). The FAA has a considerable number of regulations regarding the use of drones for the U.S. citizens. Users who want to employ the drones for commercial applications, such as crop spraying, are required to file for an exemption. These regulations are hindering the adoption rate initially observed by the agricultural drones market companies in many countries.

The growing interest of research and venture capital partners towards space-related startups resulted in considerable growth of small satellite-based Earth Observation (EO), which is considered as a threat to drones. A large number of EO satellites will be launched in the coming years, thus lowering the use of drones in agriculture. 

The growth of drones is largely tied to the technological developments in terms of flight strength and reliability. The manufacturers of agricultural drones are focused towards innovation of high speed drones with greater payload capacity. AgEagle, senseFly, and some other players have recently launched drones with superior flight period, suitable for continuous surveys. Advancements in vision technologies are likely to improve the data resolution of the drones, thus boosting their performance. Drones are also finding applications in several agriculture-related industries such as dairy, fisheries, and others, which significantly adds to its growth potential. Drones are considered as the key technological achievement in agriculture in the past era and are successfully being used in multiple applications within the sector.

Small Drones Market: By Maximum Take-Off Weight (Nano, Micro, Mini); By Payload (Video Cameras, Sensors, Wireless Communication Systems); By End Use (Security, Mining, Search and Resuce) - Forecast (2018 - 2025)

Target Drone Market: By Specification (Wing Span, Speed, Altitude, Others); By Engine Type (Piston, Wankel, Turboprop, Turbojet, Others); Platform (Aerial, Ground, Underwater, and Sea Surface); Target Type (Full- & Sub-scaled, Free Fly, Tow, Sport); By Application (Target & Decoy, Training, Reconnaissance, Others); By Geography - (2018-2023)