Market Value to Exceed $9 Billion by 2028, Per Global Agriculture Drone Market Outlook Report 2023 Growth is accelerated

The market for agricultural drones is anticipated to increase from $2.61 billion in 2022 to $9.01 billion in 2028, with a CAGR of 22.94% throughout that period. Due to its substantial large-scale farming operations and accessibility to cutting-edge technology, North America assumed the top spot in the worldwide agriculture drone market in 2022. The dominance of the region is further fueled by the presence of important drone manufacturers and technology suppliers, which encourages the widespread use of drones.

Agriculture drone sales have increased significantly in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) area, particularly in China, Japan, and Australia. APAC is in a position to have the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in the global agriculture drone market as a result of rising government initiatives and support.

The market for agricultural drones is highly competitive and diverse, with both long-standing businesses and recent newcomers. Industry giants including DJI, Parrot SA, PrecisionHawk, Trimble Inc., AeroVironment Inc., Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd., Samli Drones and AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc. are prominent international players in the agriculture drone market landscape.

These large firms continually engage in strategic activities like mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, and collaborations to strengthen their market positions and hold sizable market shares.

MONETARY DYNAMICS

Trends & Opportunities in the Market

The idea of “Drone-as-a-Service” is one remarkable trend that has emerged from the development of drone technology. This novel strategy is providing businesses with drone-based services that let them take advantage of aerial automation without directly owning drones. According to this approach, specialized businesses offer farmers customized drone-based services, disrupting conventional farming practices.

The move toward precision agriculture, smart farming, and digital farming is another important trend. Agriculture drones are essential to this shift because automation is a key component of these operations. Drones independently conduct field surveys, gather data, and carry out operations like airborne seeding or spraying. This automation frees up farmers to concentrate on higher-value tasks like data analysis and decision-making, which ultimately improves production, efficiency, and crop quality.

Industry Limitations

Agriculture drones encounter difficulties because of their high initial prices and regulatory restrictions, despite their many advantages. The cost of smart drones with complex features and sensors can be prohibitive. Along with the drone itself, this cost also covers extra costs for software, training, and maintenance.

Particularly among small-scale farmers or those living in areas with limited resources, these large upfront expenditures may discourage adoption. The development of the agriculture drone business may also be hampered by regulatory obstacles in different jurisdictions, particularly in price-sensitive areas.

INFORMATION BY TYPE

The fixed-wing type segment rules the global market for agricultural drones. The capacity of fixed-wing drones to effectively cover broad regions has helped them become more popular in agriculture. These drones are appropriate for mapping, spraying, and crop monitoring duties since they have longer flight periods and can carry heavier payloads. However, unlike multi-rotor drones, fixed-wing drones are unable to hover in situ, which limits their capacity to carry out tasks that call for stationary flying.

SENSOR TYPE INSIGHTS

RGB, multi-spectral, thermal, and lidar sensors are the four categories of sensors used in the worldwide agriculture drone market.

The largest market share belongs to multi-spectral sensors because they give farmers the ability to look farther than they can with the human eye. These sensors’ many bands of light collection enable accurate study of plant health, canopy coverage, leaves, and other plant components.

Early detection of pests, weeds, and diseases in plants as well as the calculation of vegetative biomass would be very difficult without multi-spectral data. These elements will likely lead to increased demand for multi-spectral sensors in the market for agricultural drones.

INSIGHTS BY PAYLOAD CAPACITY

The global agriculture drone market comprises a wide range of payload capacity of agriculture drones. Some drones fall into the range of below 10 KG, 10–30 KG, and the bigger drones fall into the above 30 KG category.

Agriculture drones with below 10 KG payload capacity held the highest share in the industry in 2022 but are likely to grow steadily during the forecast period. Drones with a payload capacity below 10 kg are typically used for small-scale agriculture operations and tasks that do not require heavy payloads. They are suitable for capturing detailed imagery of crops, detecting plant health issues, and generating accurate maps of fields.

INFORMATION BY OPERATING MODE

In 2022, the remote control operating mode accounted for the biggest market share worldwide for agricultural drones.

Operators are in complete control of the drone’s flight path, payload release, and data collecting in this mode. Due to the capacity of operators to modify the drone’s actions and motions, remote control operation offers flexibility and adaptability.

Autonomous drones, which have the smallest market share, are predicted to grow the sector and generate revenues of around $3.80 billion by 2028. Due to their simplicity and safety, remote control drones also held a larger market share than autonomous ones.

INSIGHTS BY DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL

The global agriculture drone market is segmented into two distribution channels: direct and indirect.

Indirect channels account for a bigger share than direct channels, as in this market, there are several retailers and intermediaries through which people can easily buy agriculture drones. Indirect distribution is favored by manufacturers who may not have extensive sales and distribution networks or prefer to leverage the expertise of established intermediaries.