FAA draft disappoints farmers

Farmers hoping to use drones for their fields were disappointed by the Federal Aviation Administration’s restrictive commercial drone rules released last weekend. Two draft rules were singled out for criticism: Pilots must remain in visual contact with drones and height restrictions of 500 feet. The constraints limit drones’ range and usefulness, critics said. FAA contended that farmers can address the line-of-sight limitation by using spotters. Firms having invested in drone technology are feeling the strain. However, the Niceville, Fla.-based Pravia LLC got two grants of exemption from the FAA in February. They will operate the eBee Ag and E384 small UAS for precision agriculture applications, for seed company Syngenta AG, over 10 crop test sites in seven states. “We are excited to be among the first to receive FAA approval,” said Pravia managing partner Tim Ray. The company will be able to bring “precision agriculture imagery and automated analysis services to smaller fields … thanks to the efficiencies gained with (small) UAS over traditional manned aircraft.” The proposed operations will include biomass analysis and estimation, yield monitoring, leaf area indexing, and reporting of geographical data and overall crop health. (Source: Reuters 02/18/15) Central Mississippi Note: Mississippi State University researchers are preparing for the day UAVs can be used commercially in agriculture. Some MSU researchers are already using UAVs while others are examining additional applications. Bobby Golden, a Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station researcher, is one of the university’s scientists interested in using UAVs in their studies.