Ben Belton

Agricultural drones are taking off globally, saving farmers time and money

Drones have become integrated into everyday life over the past decade – in sectors as diverse as entertainment, health care and construction. They have also begun to transform the way people grow food. In a new study published in the journal Science, we show that use of agricultural drones has spread extremely rapidly around the world. In our research as social scientists studying agriculture and rural development, we set out to document where agricultural drones have taken off around the world, what they are doing, and why they have traveled so far so fast. We also explored what these changes mean for farmers, the environment, the public and governments.

Can the global drone revolution make agriculture more sustainable? Rapid growth in drone use is upending expectations but also inducing trade-offs

Use of drones has increased considerably over the past decade, reshaping activities as diverse as warfare, entertainment, delivery services, and disease control. One of the most consequential uses of drones—in agriculture—has taken off globally within only the past 5 years. This is upending expectations and may help to reconcile a fundamental sustainability dilemma—how to produce more food by using fewer inputs—but is also inducing trade-offs. This rapid change has been largely unnoticed by researchers outside of the specialized technical worlds of aeronautical engineering and precision agriculture. Little academic attention has been paid to the use of agricultural drones beyond the laboratory or trial plot. Evidence of the extent and effects of drones’ real-world use is partial and fragmentary. We explored evidence and hypotheses about global agricultural drone diffusion and its implications for sustainability and set out an agenda for future policy and science.

Traders and agri-food value chain resilience: The case of maize in Myanmar