Market Overview

The Agricultural Drones Market size was valued at USD 1,197.05 Million in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 4751.36 Million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 19.68% from 2023 to 2030.

Agricultural drones are unmanned aircraft used to improve farming by increasing crop output and keeping an eye on how crops are growing. Digital photography on drones gives a better view of the fields, which makes farms run more efficiently. It makes it possible to solve problems like different types of dirt, watering, and fungus growth. It is used to keep track of animals, farming, and other things. Unmanned aerial vehicles, which are what drones are, are small moving platforms that can weigh up to 20 kg (50 lbs). Due to their size, a person cannot (yet) get on board.

Drones can be controlled in two ways: directly, by a person using a wireless remote, or autonomously, by the vehicle controlling itself and following a path based on data from GPS or other sensors. When used in farmland, drones help cut down on pollution. Spraying pesticides in the fields is not always done the same way. Farmers can use drones to figure out where to spray poisons evenly, since too much of them can cause a lot of health problems. One option is to give the drones the tools they need to scan the ground and spray the chemical evenly. This would cut down on the number of chemicals used by agriculture producers.

The worldwide supply chain is at an all-time high, and commodity prices are at an all-time low. This means that the global agriculture business needs a modern farming solution more than ever before. Also, drones have changed the world's agriculture business by making it more productive, less expensive, and more profitable. The global market for agricultural drones is still young, but improvements in drone technology are likely to help the market grow.

Agricultural Drones During the forecast period, market share is expected to grow by a lot because venture capital funding for using drones in farm businesses around the world is on the rise. In February 2021, for example, Series E' investment in Drone Deploy brought in USD 50 million. Advanced technologies like sensors, RGB cameras, and other analytical tools are mixed with drone technology to do full field monitoring. Rapid changes in technology are making it easier for drones to make 3D plans that can be used to study agriculture in real time. During the time in question, the Agricultural Drones Market is likely to grow because of the growing need for automated farming tools.

A big worry for the company is that several countries have strict rules about how unidentified aerial systems can fly at a certain level. A lack of knowledge about these tools among large farmer groups in some countries also makes it hard for them to sell. The FAA in the United States has given permission for farming drones to be used. The FAA's Small UAS Rule has recently had a big effect on how drones are used and how they can be used in many fields, including agriculture. The rules, which are mostly about farming, let farmers and ranchers use drones and spell out the rules and requirements for remote sensing activities over farms and ranches.

Market Dynamics

Drivers: Small drones are being used more and more in farming

Over the past few years, a lot of technology improvements have made farming easier and more productive. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are one of these big changes. With the help of cutting-edge technology and software, they are used a lot in agriculture right now. Improvements in components, sensors, and sizes have made it possible for small, robotic, and self-driving rotorcraft to be made. Experts say that this is one of the most important things that will cause the market to grow.

Initiatives by the government

The market for farming drones has grown a lot because of what the government has done. Governments all over the world have been pushing for farmers to use agricultural drones to improve output, cut costs, and get better crops. In the United States, for example, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has made rules that let farms use drones for farming. In the same way, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the European Union helps to pay for precision agriculture tools like drones.

Governments in economies that are still growing have also been pushing for the use of agriculture drones. For example, the Indian government has started the "Krishi UAV" program, which helps people buy drones for use in agriculture by giving them money. China's government has been encouraging farmers to use drones to improve food security and increase the efficiency of farming.

Opportunities: The use of farmland drones is being pushed by the growing use of sustainable farming methods.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are being used more and more in agriculture to solve environmental problems. To feed the world's growing population, farming areas must be able to adapt to and deal with big problems caused by climate change. Using the power of ICTs to grow and change is a great way to not only help solve some of these problems but also speed up the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 (SDGs). When modern technology is used in traditional farming methods, output and efficiency will change. Farmers who use sustainable farming methods may be able to speed up their production processes by using more data analytics. The market for agricultural drones would also grow if more money was spent on agricultural drones and the tools that goes with them.

Surveying and mapping the market with agricultural drones

One of the best ways to use agriculture drones is for mapping and surveying. Farmland maps can be made with the help of drones that have high-resolution cameras, sensors, and GPS technology. This information can be used to find areas that need special care, such as soil moisture, crop health, and nutrient levels. Agricultural drones can help farmers make better choices, increase crop yields, and cut down on waste by giving them accurate data.

Also, agricultural drones can be used to survey big areas of farmland. Doing this by hand can take a long time and cost a lot of money. Drones can quickly and easily cover big areas of farmland, making it easier for farmers to check on crop health and spot problems.

Challenges: In respond to data privacy issues, restrictions regarding the way drones can be used were made.

Because farmers don't know much about drones, it's hard for drone makers to get in touch with their possible customers. People also don't want to buy agricultural drones because they don't know how to use the tools (software programs) that measure and improve efficiency. This makes it hard for the market to grow. Cybersecurity worries are another thing that is holding the market back. If these problems are fixed, the industry may grow in the near future.

 Growth Factor

People think that agriculture is the most hopeful part of the economy because it has to keep up with the world's growing population. Lack of skilled agricultural workers or farmers, lack of fertilizers, extreme weather conditions and their ineffective use, illnesses, infections, allergies, and other health problems caused by chemicals like pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, or animal or insect stings have all been problems for the agricultural industry. But right now, the agriculture business is focused on growth by using more complicated and technologically advanced tools. The farming drone is a self-driving flying cart that can watch how crops grow and help farmers make more money from their crops. Farmers can keep an eye on their fields from higher up thanks to new sensors and digital imaging technology. This helps them avoid problems like fungus and bug infestations, irrigation problems, soil changes, and other problems. The market for agricultural drones is expected to grow at a significant CAGR over the next few years. This is because more advanced software solutions for data analytics and field service are being made, the government is putting in place policies and incentives to help the agricultural sector, and consumers are becoming more aware of the benefits of agricultural drones.

Major Segments Covered

Type Insights

Also, it is expected that the subsegment of rotary-wing aircraft will grow the most over the time of the projection. The most common type is the rotary drone, which is easy to control in terms of direction and height. These drones have the best mix of cost, control, lift, and maneuverability. A popular example of a drone with more than one propeller is the DJI Matrice 200 series, which is sold by DJI Technology Co., Ltd. The DJI Matrice 210 RTK can carry up to 2KG and has a range of up to 7KM, which is enough for almost all field surveying tasks. The fixed-wing drone subsegment is expected to have a large share of the global market, with revenues of $387.5 million in 2020 and $1,613 million over the estimate period, and a CAGR of 19.0%. Fixed-wing planes have the benefit of being able to fly far on a single battery. Most business models can fly for at least an hour and cover an area of about 400 hectares because their engines are more efficient. This makes them perfect for keeping an eye on oil pipelines or power lines.

Component Insights

This part is expected to have the most market share for farming drones in 2021. This market is growing because more and more people want to repair, upgrade, and change the hardware parts of drones to make them last longer, work better, and give them a competitive edge.

This market is also growing because makers are putting more effort into improving and designing drones so that they can work in any kind of extreme weather. Still, the software industry is expected to grow at the fastest rate over the next few years. This is because software technology is getting better and more farmers are using software to analyze more data.

Application Insights

The field spray part of the global agriculture drone market is expected to grow the most quickly in 2021. In drone farming, crop spray drones are used to water, fertilize, and spray pesticides on rice farms, small fields, and other waterlogged systems, as well as areas with steep hills or that are hard to get to. Precision agriculture may include systems that use sound echoes, GPS, and lasers to keep drones at the right height above crops. In the coming years, this subsegment will grow because of these improvements to crop spraying drones.

Crop monitoring drones provide data with a higher level of detail than traditional satellite systems. This means that stressed areas, disease outbreaks, and real plant counts can be found faster. People think that drones can spread fertilizers and pesticides on fields up to 50 ha five times faster than traditional equipment. By only treating areas that need it, as shown by crop tracking, up to 60% of the materials can be saved. The segment of the global farm drone market for autonomous drones would grow the fastest and reach $2,243.9 million by 2030, up from $512.9 million in 2020. Autonomous agriculture drones have better control systems on the ground and use automatic supervision to lower the number of operators needed to watch over the fleet. Many farming tasks, like collecting data and making maps with drones, are now done by themselves. Also, the subsegment is expected to grow a lot in the next few years because of improvements in autonomous technology, such as self-driving seeders and fertilization drones that can work on their own and check the health of crops.

Manually controlled drones are made up of the part of the drone that is in the air, the pilot who controls it from a control station on the ground, the sensors that are attached to the UAV, and the software that can be used to figure out what the data from the sensors means. Farmers want more manually controlled drones with lots of sensors so they can handle their crops in a more precise and varied way. The sub-development categories are expected to benefit from the loosening of rules about how drones can be used and the global support for drone startups.

Regional Insights

Geographically The Agricultural Drones Market has been broken down into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. (MEA).


In Asia-Pacific, the market for farming drones is expected to grow a lot over the next few years. Countries in the area are slowly increasing their spending on research and development (R&D) to speed up the use of agricultural drones. The growth of the industry has also been helped by the increase in venture capital given to UAV manufacturers in the area. A lot of businesses in the area are making cheap, effective UAVs that can be used for a wider range of farming tasks.

North America has the largest share of the market for farming drones. Using UAVs to do chores like mowing and plowing to increase productivity is expected to help the business grow. As farmers have become more interested in precision agriculture for crop scouting and field mapping, they have started to use UAVs in their work.

Scope Of Report

Key Vendors

• DJI (China)
• 3DR (US)
• Ondas Networks (AMERICAN ROBOTICS) (US)
• ideaForge (India)
• DroneDeploy (US)
• MICRODRONES (Germany)
• PrecisionHawk, Inc. (US)
• Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A. (US)
• AeroVironment, Inc. (US)
• AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc. (US)
• ISRAEL AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES (Israel)
• Delair (France)
• senseFly (Switzerland)
• Sentera (US)
• Trimble Inc. (US)
• THANOS (India)

1. DJI (China)

DJI is the world leader when it comes to making and selling new drone and camera technology for business and fun.

DJI was started and is run by people who love remote-controlled helicopters and are experts in flight-control technology and video stabilization. The company's goal is to make aerial technology easy for makers, innovators, and businesses all over the world to get, use, and trust.

DJI has brought its knowledge and cutting-edge technology to businesses, government agencies, and other fields all over the world. DJI Enterprise was made to help companies see how they could use aerial technology to improve their business. DJI has added aerial platforms, payloads, and analytic tools to its enterprise solutions. These can be used right now by companies in agriculture, construction, infrastructure, energy, public safety, and more. UAV-powered solutions let workers streamline workflows, give staff more power, digitize operations, and make daily tasks less time-consuming and less expensive. This helps businesses get ready for the workplace of the future.

2. 3DR (US)

3DR Labs, LLC, an Accumen Company and the biggest 3D medical image post-processing lab in the U.S., is based in Louisville, Kentucky, and gives access to more than 200 expert radiologic technologists around the clock, every day of the year. Since it opened in 2005, 3DR Labs has worked with hundreds of hospital imaging departments, imaging centers that are not part of a hospital, and radiology offices. For CT and MRI tests, the results are always ready within hours or even minutes.

3. Ondas Networks (AMERICAN ROBOTICS) (US)

Ondas Networks Inc. is a wireless networking business that designs and makes its Software Defined Radio (SDR) platform for Mission Critical Internet of Things (MC-IoT) applications. This platform has been granted multiple patents. Ondas' end markets include Rail, self-driving cars, electricity, oil and gas, and the government. Customers use their SDR technology to set up their own private licensed broadband radio networks. They also give a managed network service for organizations with important missions. IEEE 802.16s, the new worldwide standard for private licensed wide area industrial networks, is supported by Ondas' SDR technology.

4. ideaForge (India)

ideaForge was the first company to sell unmanned aircraft systems (also called "UAS") in India, and it is still the market winner. In India, the company has the biggest operational deployment of UAVs made in India. Every five minutes, an ideaForge-made drone takes off for mapping and surveillance. Their customers have flown their UAVs on more than 300,000 trips. Drone Industry Insights released a study in December 2022 that said ideaForge was the 7th best company in the world that made drones for both civilian and military use.

5. DroneDeploy (US)

Build with confidence and run your business with trust. Because of this, tens of thousands of companies in building, oil and gas, and renewable energy use DroneDeploy every day. The company helps them organize reality capture with drones, robots, and 360-degree cameras, putting all of this information on one platform so that AI can analyze it. DroneDeploy is changing the future of reality capture with features like automatic gauge readings and methane leak detection, as well as aerial and ground views of how a building is coming along.

Recent Developments

• In May 2021, top drone maker DJI released the Agras T30, a new agricultural drone that can spray up to 40 acres of crops per hour.

• In April 2021, An Israeli agtech company called Taranis raised $30 million as part of a funding round to grow its drone-based crop tracking services.

• In March 2021, Deere & Company, an American company that makes farm equipment, announced that it was buying Bear Flag Robotics, a startup that was making technology for tractors to drive themselves.

• In February 2021, DroneDeploy, a top drone mapping and analytics platform, released a new tool for monitoring crop health. This tool uses machine learning algorithms to find plant stress and disease.

• In December 2020, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will allow drones to be used to spray crops in some rural areas. This will give agricultural drone manufacturers and service providers new business possibilities.

Market Segmentation

This portion of the study on the Agriculture Drone Market gives detailed data on the segments at the country and regional level, thereby aiding the strategist in determining the target demographics for the relevant product or service and the impending opportunities.

By Type

• Fixed-Wing
• Rotary-Wing
• Others

By Component

• Hardware
• Frames
• Control System
• Propulsion System
• Navigation System
• Payload
• Avionics
• Others
• Software
• Imaging Software
• Data Management Software
• Data Analytics Software
• Others

By Application

• Crop Monitoring
• Soil & Field Analysis
• Planting & Seeding
• Crop Spray
• Others

• North America
  • US
  • Canada
  • Mexico
  • Rest of North America
• Europe
  • Germany
  • France
  • Italy
  • Spain
  • UK
  • Nordic Countries
    • Denmark
    • Finland
    • Iceland
    • Sweden
    • Norway
  • Benelux Union
    • Belgium
    • The Netherlands
    • Luxembourg
  • Rest of Europe
• Asia-Pacific
  • Japan
  • China
  • India
  • Australia
  • South Korea
  • Southeast Asia
    • Indonesia
    • Thailand
    • Malaysia
    • Singapore
    • Rest of Southeast Asia
  • Rest of Asia-Pacific
• The Middle East & Africa
  • Saudi Arabia
  • UAE
  • Egypt
  • South Africa
  • Rest of the Middle East & Africa
• Latin America
  • Brazil
  • Argentina
  • Rest of Latin America

Conclusion

In conclusion, the market for agricultural drones is likely to grow a lot over the next few years. This is because more farmers are using precision farming methods, the need for more food production, and the need for efficient and effective farming operations. Also, the market is moving toward automated and smart drone systems that can give farmers data and analytics in real time. But problems like regulatory hurdles and high investment costs may slow the growth of the market to some degree. Overall, the agricultural drones market is a good place for both new and old players to make money by coming up with new ideas and advanced solutions that meet the changing needs of the agriculture business.