While unmanned aerial drones have taken center stage in recent US foreign policy debates, there is a growing market for the unmanned robots in the farm sector.

To speak of drones tends to conjure images of bombed out rubble in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In recent weeks, drone attacks, an increasingly common tool of the Obama administration, have dominated foreign policy discussions in the wake of President Obama’s claim to have the power to use unmanned drone attacks on suspected terrorists, even if those terrorists are US citizens.

While there has been increased talk of a growing drone market for US police forces, agricultural producers may become a major buyer of aerial drones.

Drones could be a major development in farm production, allowing farmers to better plan and monitor planting and pesticide applications. “A manned crop sprayer is flying 10 feet above his crops — how accurate is it? Any crop you spray that isn’t on your farm you have to pay for, and a remote-controlled ‘copter can be very precise,” said an executive at one of the US’s largest drone companies. “Spraying, watering — there’s a whole market for precision agriculture, and when you put that cost-benefit together, farmers will buy [drones].”

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Written by: Justin Ellison / Farm Plus Staff Writer