Using Drones For Crop Surveillance

I. Introduction
A. Drones have both a lot of possibilities, as well as a lot of issues.
A. The agricultural industry needs to decide if the costs outweigh the benefit.
B. We will observe the potential, demand, issues, and future of the use of drones for
crop surveillance.
C. Drones have the potential of increasing yields, safety, and productivity, and
reducing costs and time input, they do, however, pose a threat to personal and
public safety and privacy.
D. Farmers continue to fight for the use of drones, while many American people, and
the FAA are cautious to move forward with this new technology.
II. Demand
A. Scouting crops
1. While all farmers know the value of scouting their crops few actually
have time to cover the acres on foot.
2. Aviation has long been used in agriculture, but its come at a price at
times, up to $1,000 an hour or more. Drones, however, offer a much
more cost-effective option. They can be made somewhat inexpensively,
and some companies would be able to offer drones for as little as $1,000
or less.
3. According to MIT Technology Review, Compared with satellite
imagery, [a drone is] much cheaper and offers higher resolution. Because
its taken under the clouds, its unobstructed and available anytime.
4. Scouting drones enable farmers to know when crops are properly
irrigated, diseased, or overrun with pests. Drones could also help farmers
count the number of plants in a crop and measure their heights
5. With the drone we are able to show troubled spots that need additional
pesticide or water,
B. Use in other countries
1. Other countries that do allow commercial agriculture drones have seen
positive results. In Japan, autonomous helicopters spray a majority of
farmland, preventing the adverse health effects caused by crop dusting.
Dutch farmers have boosted yields by 50% while conserving water and
fertilizer through use of drones.
C. Growing market
1. Experts point to agriculture as the most promising commercial market
for drones because the technology is a perfect fit for large-scale farms
and vast rural areas where privacy and safety issues are less of a
concern.
III.Issues
A. FAA regulations
1. due to citizen concerns and lack of FAA regulations, [the] industry
has been nearly stopped in its tracks. (Drones 2)

2. Flights into restricted air space have become such a common problem
for private drone users that there is a whole subset of the insurance
industry forming to provide liability insurance for drones and drone
operators.
3. "However, if you are flying the drone for profit and flying it over
someone else's land, you have to have permission to be there and an FAA
license, something akin to a pilot's license,"
B. Safety concerns
1. One issue holding commercial drones back is concerns about privacy
and safety. According to a recent Associated Press poll, Only 21%
favored commercial use of drones, compared with 43% opposed.
Another 35% were in the middle.
2. Also, drones pose safety concerns due to the possibility of interference
with air traffic as well as the possibility that they can run into or drop
onto people, power lines, homes, and so on.
3. Some farmers fear environmental groups could use the technology to
spy on them PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals,
recently announced plans to purchase drones to monitor factory farms.
4. In a recent speech, a Supreme Court justice remarked that [t]here are
drones flying over the air randomly that are recording everything thats
happening on what we consider our private property, and such
technology has to stimulate us to think about what is it that we cherish
in privacy and how far we want to protect it and from whom, including
from corporations and from private citizens.
IV.Potential
A. Find potentially yield limiting problems in a timely fashion. (Drones)
B. At an average of $2 per acre for a walking visual inspection or an aerial survey to
take an image of crop fields, the ROI on the purchase of an aerial helicopter drone
can be met quickly. In most operations, the ROI for our drones can be achieved in a
crop season or less, leaving you owning a drone that reduces your operating costs
and improves your crop yield by giving you the timely information you need for
quick management intervention. (Drones)
C. UAV product can be very complex to set-up and operate, but with our present
standards we allow new operators to have confidence in operating from the
beginning. (Drones)
D. Draw field borders for flight pattern. (Drones)
E. Seeing the true health of your field in a color contrast allows you to see how much
sunlight is being absorbed by the crop canopy. (Drones)
F. As an added safety net with the flip os a switch your [drone] to return to its
original takeoff location. (Drones)
G. Farmers could find roaming, runaway cattle by using drones.
H. Were talking surgical agriculture, which allows us to be more environmentally
friendly because we can be even more precise in how we apply fertilizer, water
or pesticides.

I. Those opportunities extend beyond mere convenience and can keep farmers
safe with patrolling their fields for illicit marijuana grows.

I.

Future

In a landmark decision from the FAA, Empire Unmanned, an agriculture drone

manufacturer, was the first agriculture company to receive an FAA Section 333
Exemption to fly commercial UAV missions over farmers fields across the
country in 2015. The exemption will have to be renewed in 2016.
B. Some forecasts predict that the commercial drone industry could create 100,000
new jobs and generate $82 billion in economic development in the first 10
years. (Drones 2)
C. The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International predicts that 80%
of commercial drones will be used for agriculture.
D. The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 requires the Federal Aviation
Administration to integrate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, into the
national airspace system by September 2015.
E. Some see this as just a gimmick. But, at one point, a lot of the technology we
use today was considered a gimmick, he said. I see this as a huge business
opportunity.
A. The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 requires the Federal Aviation
Administration to integrate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, into the
national airspace system by September 2015.
VI. Personal Reflection
A. The real benefits outweigh the theoretical costs.
B. We have to consider our ever growing population and its increasing need for more
efficient food production.
C. Innovations such as this one need to be supported, rather than suppressed, if we
wish to feed the world.
D. Regulations are necessary in order to keep everyone safe, but they shouldnt be
use-limiting.
VII. Conclusion
A. In coming months and years law makers and the FAA will have to make critical
decisions concerning the use of drones.
B. The safety concerns and the growing need for efficient agriculture will have to be
considered.
A.

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