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, we show that the 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 travelled so far so fast. We also explored what these changes mean for farmers, the environment, the public and governments.
From toys to farm tools
Just a few years ago, agricultural drones were expensive, small and difficult to use, limiting their appeal to farmers. In contrast, today’s models can be flown immediately after purchase and carry loads weighing up to 220 pounds (100 kg) – the weight of two sacks of fertiliser.
Their prices vary from country to country due to taxes, tariffs and shipping costs. In the US, a drone owner can expect to spend USD 20,000 to USD 30,000 for the same equipment that a farmer in China could buy for less than USD 10,000.
However, most farmers hire service providers, small businesses that supply drones and pilots for a fee, making them easy and relatively affordable to use.
Agricultural drones are now akin to flying tractors – multifunctional machines that can perform numerous tasks using different hardware attachments.
Common uses for drones on farms include spraying crops, spreading fertiliser, sowing seeds, transporting produce, dispensing fish feeds, painting greenhouses, monitoring livestock locations and well-being, mapping field topography and drainage, and measuring crop health.This versatility makes drones valuable for growing numerous crops on farms of all sizes.
Technological leapfrogging
We estimated the number of agricultural drones operating in some of the world’s leading agricultural countries by scouring online news and trade publications in many different languages.
Historically, most agricultural technology – tractors, for example – has spread from high-income countries to middle- and then lower-income ones over the course of many decades.
Drones partially reversed and dramatically accelerated this pattern, diffusing first from East Asia to Southeast Asia, then to Latin America, and finally to North America and Europe.
Their use in higher-income regions is more limited, but is accelerating rapidly in the US. China leads the world in agricultural drone manufacturing and adoption. There are now more than 250,000 agricultural drones reported to be in use there.
Other middle-income countries have also been enthusiastic adopters. For instance, drones were used on 30% of Thailand’s farmland in 2023, up from almost none in 2019, mainly by spraying pesticides and spreading fertilisers.
In the US, the number of agricultural drones registered with the Federal Aviation Administration leapt from about 1,000 in January 2024 to around 5,500 in mid-2025. (The Conversation)
