Farmers have been using Drones over the past 20 years for aerial imaging and scanning farms. Now the drones are being used for hands-on crop management enabled to spray herbicides, insecticides, pesticides, and foliar fertilization with precision and even to distribute seeds to farmers. A “Feather-weight flying tractor” is now at work treating thousand acres of crop-land.

This is a major shift in the business of food and signalling a reality that investors and leaders of Industrial Agriculture should heed. Drones are poised to significantly disrupt the tractor industry and unlike many other high-tech agriculture trends. This is good for small and mid-sized farmers and a big win for the planet to boot. It cuts fuel costs and reduces agrochemicals usage by 15%.

This is the future of Farming. Third generation farmers are turning away from using heavy-weight tractors toward drones. This AG-230 drone weighing about 50 kg spray-jets carrying 8 gallons of fungicides scuddling 10 feet above the cash crop are well adapted to hotter temperatures, heavy rains, heartier weeds, and prolific pests. This is nick-named as “Flying Tractor”, a window into the Future of Farming.