Diseased crops or livestock can cost a farmer his livelihood for the season. So having earlier information about when a disease or another stress, like a pest or drought, is taking hold is extremely valuable.

In agriculture, that’s part of the promise that drone technology brings. Up until recently, drones have been associated with the military and war, and lately, with DIY hobbyists too. But drones (aka unmanned aerial vehicles) for large-scale commercial uses are now poised to lift off in the U.S. in a big way.





“Farmers will be able to produce more with less and … react to changing conditions much more quickly,” says Ernest Earon, president of PrecisionHawk, a company that is making an unmanned aerial vehicle tailored for agriculture.

As the Federal Aviation Administration begins permitting drones in U.S. commercial airspace, the industry expects to expand dramatically. Despite more broad concerns about privacy and surveillance of the general public, its biggest market is likely to be spying on corn, wheat, and other crops. A report in March produced by an industry group projected that agricultural uses would comprise 80% of the market over the next decade.

PrecisionHawk’s work shows how it might be done.

It has designed its unmanned aerial vehicles to be extremely simple to use. “For a farmer or even an agronomist or an agricultural researcher, they don’t want to be a UAV pilot or an electronics engineer,” says Earon.

Launching the lightweight three-foot long vehicle requires a toss into the sky, like you would a paper airplane. The flight software is designed so that minimal tinkering is involved. A farmer could set the area to be surveyed, and the UAV does the rest, including planning the flight course and adapting to changing conditions based on the data it gets from the seven or eight sensors it’s carrying. It also knows when it’s facing trouble–if the winds are too high, it will come back and land. If its battery is running low, it will do the same.