The agriculture drones market size is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 31.5% between 2023 and 2028, reaching a value of $17.9 billion by 2028 from a projection of $4.5 billion in 2023.
Drone technologies are quickly revolutionizing the agricultural sector owing to the recent evolutions in this technology and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations, and thereby bringing drones into mainstream farming. With the global population projected to reach over 9 billion by 2050, the consumption of agriculture products is expected to increase by 70%, a figure complicated by unpredictable weather patterns and natural disasters.
Agriculture Drones Market Dynamics
Drivers:
Software in drones acts as an interface for mediating the interaction between user and aircraft, and aircraft and its hardware. Similar to smartphones and tablet systems, choosing the wrong software platform for any drone can result in high switching costs if one needs to change the software in the future. Drone software is categorized as open source and proprietary software. Open-source software is distributed under a variety of licensing terms; almost anyone can modify the software to add capabilities that are not envisaged by its originators. Hence, it is preferred over proprietary software.
PX4 is one of the top open-source, auto-piloting software packages available from Pixhawk (Switzerland) in the agriculture drone sector. It is a piece of software that allows drones and other unmanned vehicles to fly. The software offers drone developers a versatile set of tools for sharing technology and creating customized solutions for drone applications. Farm surveying plays an important role in precision farming, along with proper analysis of field data collected by drones.
Security and safety concerns associated with civil and commercial application of drones restraining the market growth
Commercial drones have been successfully integrated into civilian airspace, although they need authorization from the concerned regulatory bodies before use. As UAVs/drones operate remotely or autonomously, manufacturers need to ensure that their drones operate within limits and do not affect the environment. They should also be able to demonstrate that their drones do not affect other manned aircraft as well as lives on the ground. In both of the above-mentioned cases, there is a possibility of hacking the flight control systems of UAVs and taking control of their operations.
Opportunity:
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the regulatory body for commercial drone operations in the US), viewing a field with a drone to determine whether crops need water when they are grown for personal use does not require FAA authorization; however, FAA authorization is needed for using drones for the same purpose in commercial farming. Previously, the only viable avenue for authorizing the use of commercial drones was the FAA’s Section 333 exemption process. This process was put in place by the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 and required the regulator to determine if a certain drone will operate safely in the national airspace system.
The application process took ~120 days, although this timeline varied depending on the planned use and whether other applicants have been approved for similar exemptions using similar aircraft in the past. Altitude, speed, and general flight specifications for the drone operations, along with the type of drone the applicant wills to fly, are the main parameters considered by the FAA while issuing an exemption. Till September 2015, FAA had issued more than 1,400 exemptions, and ~130 of them were specifically issued for precision agricultural purposes. In January 2015, Empire Unmanned became the first company in the US to receive an FAA exemption for flying UAVs for commercial agricultural uses in agriculture drones industry.
Recently, The introduction of the FAA’s Small UAS Rule (Part 107) has significantly influenced the utilization of drones in various sectors, including agriculture. Specifically targeting the agricultural industry, these regulations provide guidelines and specifications for farmers and ranchers to employ drones for remote sensing activities on their farms and ranches. Moreover, other applications are being developed, including, but not limited to, expanded flights beyond current limits (distance between ground operator and UAVs and possible applications of insecticides and fungicides in fields). For agriculture, in Part 107 rule, a waiver allowing operations beyond the visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) of the operator allows pilots to capture more area in a single deployment, compared to the area taken while flying a drone within line-of-sight. While the process of securing a waiver may seem complex, there are resources available to help navigate the process.
Challenges in the Agriculture Drones Market:
Drone’s data is collected in raw format; it is processed by context, relevance, and priority, and it is then presented in a manner that can be useful in decision-making. Precision farming regularly produces high volumes of important data pertaining to mapping, variable rate seeding, soil testing, yield monitoring, and historical crop rotation. The proper storage and management of data are important in precision farming as its success relies entirely on the data gathered for assessing farm conditions. Data management is key to making smart farm management decisions and improving farm operations.
The management of data collected by drones is a major challenge faced by users as it requires expertise and knowledge. Also, many adopters of precision farming technologies do not know how to analyze their precision data. The adoption rate of agriculture drones could be boosted by providing easy data management solutions to farmers. However, to utilize it better, efforts should also be made to standardize the data format of precision agriculture processes.
The Asia Pacific market is projected to contribute the largest share of the agriculture drones market.
APAC is among the prospective markets for agriculture drones. APAC has large farmlands and a high population growth rate. APAC has a huge regional spread with countries such as China, Japan, India, Australia, New Zealand, and the Rest of APAC. In APAC, the adoption of agriculture drones is driven by factors such as the rising food demand, the need to improve yields despite limited resources, and the growing necessity to protect crops from unpredictable weather conditions.
China is developing innovative technologies for drones with a prime aim to manufacture them at the lowest possible cost. China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is developing a medium-range drone called CH-4; the company has also shown interest in short-range drones. China plans to launch drones in several of its provinces for surveying and information security missions. Beijing Wisewell Avionics Science and Technology Company, Nanjing Research Institute on Simulation Technique, and the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics are a few of the organizations involved in the development of drones in China.
Top Companies in the Agriculture Drones Market
Top Agriculture Drones Companies include DJI (China), PrecisionHawk (US), Trimble Inc. (US), Parrot Drones (France), AeroVironment, Inc. (US), Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. (Japan), AgEagle Aerial Systems, Inc. (US), DroneDeploy (US), 3DR (US), and Sentera Inc. (US) SlantRange (US), Sentera Inc. (US), ATMOS UAV (Netherlands), Delair (France), and Nileworks Inc. (Japan).
These players in this market are focusing on increasing their presence through agreements and collaborations. These companies have a strong presence in North America, Asia Pacific and Europe. They also have manufacturing facilities along with strong distribution networks across these regions.
