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Agri-Drones Await Final FAA Rules

1 min read

Two recent webinars hosted by a senior staff attorney at the National Agricultural Law Center at the University of Arkansas System’s Division of Agriculture focused on the legal framework behind deploying drones for agricultural use.

Rusty Rumley, who led the webinars, said he thinks a lot of people in the agricultural sector, including farmers and researchers, are awaiting the Federal Aviation Administration’s final rules on drone usage before attempting to fly them. Potential uses of the devices in an agricultural setting include applying pesticides and herbicides in areas with difficult topography and monitoring row crops.

“There’s a lot of interest in using them,” Rumley said. “There hasn’t been a lot of practical application yet, just because the current regulatory framework has really held back the use of drones for a lot of purposes.”

Rumley said about 25 people from 10 states attended the first seminar in late June and another 59 from 15-20 states tuned in to one held last week. He said he expects to host another webinar on the topic when the final rules are released by the FAA.

In the meantime, Rumley said, farmers are allowed to fly unmanned aerial vehicles recreationally, but once tools like an infrared camera are added to the craft, it crosses into the commercial sector.

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