Agricultural drones

Agricultural drones cover two families of use: precision spraying and spreading, where the aircraft carries a tank and treats targeted areas, and observation, where sensors map crop condition to guide interventions. In both cases the value comes from precision: treating or observing where it is needed, including on sloping, wet or hard-to-reach plots that a ground machine cannot easily work.

Choosing a treatment aircraft is a trade-off between payload, battery endurance and treatment width: the larger the tank, the shorter the flights and the harder the batteries work. You should therefore reason in area treated per hour with the number of batteries and the charging setup planned, not in tank capacity. Positioning accuracy, the availability of spare parts and batteries, and pilot training also count.

The drone itself falls under Delegated Regulation 2019/945, which sets product requirements and class markings for unmanned aircraft, while Implementing Regulation 2019/947 organises their operation into open, specific and certified categories. An agricultural treatment drone, by its mass and use, falls in practice under the specific category, which requires an operational authorisation from the national civil aviation authority, operator registration and remote pilot training. The radio module falls under the Radio Equipment Directive.

One decisive point is often discovered too late: aerial spraying of plant protection products is prohibited in principle in the European Union, and is only possible under derogations defined by each Member State. Before any purchase, you must therefore check what the country of operation allows, for which products and on which land. The operator remains responsible for flight and use authorisations; we take care of product conformity and its file.

The first mistake is to buy the aircraft before checking the operating framework: applicable category, authorisation to obtain, products allowed for aerial treatment in the country concerned. The second is to accept an aircraft with no class marking and no EU declaration of conformity under the applicable regulations, with only a generic “CE certificate” that has no legal value.

Then come the logistical mistakes: high-capacity lithium batteries are dangerous goods in transport, with test reports to be provided, and wear parts, propellers, nozzles, pumps, batteries, must be available in Europe within lead times compatible with a farming season. A machine grounded mid-season for want of a part is worth nothing. We audit these points with the factory before recommending a model.