Their legal and business woes in the USA notwithstanding, it seems the year 2023 was another progressive one – at least on the agriculture front – for drone manufacturer DJI, which revealed that its Agras sprayer drones were responsible for treating about 500million hectares of land in the year leading up to June 2024.

Included in this is a third of Chinese farmland, and nearly four million hectares in the USA.

For the drone company, this remarkable step forward is not only testament to the importance of drone technology to the precision agriculture worldwide; but it is also proof of how much the agricultural industry itself is growing.

“The rapid adoption of agricultural drones around the world is a testament to the transformative power of emerging technologies in the agricultural sector,” DJI said in a statement launching the report (which you can read in full here).

“By the end of June 2024, agricultural drones had already treated more than 500 million hectares of agricultural land worldwide.”

These vast swaths of land included and fumigation with ripeners on small sugarcane farms in South Africa (increasing the final sugar yield by up to 1.78 tonnes per hectare); the management of a 10-hectare Navel orange orchard throughout its growth cycle by a single farmer; drift tests for the Agras T50 and T25 models in China, Australia and Hungary; application of herbicides on agave farms in Mexico (saving 88 percent of water and reducing costs by more than $60 USD per hectare); selective weed spraying on Australian pastures (which saved 50 percent on costs and reduced chemical use by 51 percent); pesticide spraying in a 1,500-tree durian orchard in Thailand, reducing chemical use by 20 to 30 percent.

“The remarkable efficiency of these drones has led to substantial savings, including a cumulative reduction of 210 million metric tons of water and 47,000 metric tons of pesticides. In addition, the deployment of agricultural drones has significantly reduced carbon emissions by 25.72 million metric tons.

“This reduction is equivalent to the carbon sequestration provided by 1.2 billion trees, underscoring the sustainable and ecological nature of this innovative approach to modern agriculture.”

The report also highlights best practices and offers valuable guidance on staff training, drone technology, agricultural applications, and the integration of agronomy and drones. DJI Agriculture oversaw the training of 300,000 pilots and 6,000 instructors.

“DJI Agriculture aims to drive efficiency in farmland management by leveraging digital solutions and smart drones, while also prioritising environmental sustainability.” said Yuan Zhang, Head of Global Sales at DJI Agriculture.

“This report highlights that governments and farmers around the world are adopting agricultural drones and smart farming techniques to improve food production in a more scientific, sustainable and eco-friendly way.”

DJI also noted the increasing acceptance that agricultural drone technology has been getting from several countries. In Brazil for example, ANAC amended regulations to require only drone registration and pilot’s license before operations can begin.

China has issued regulations that allow manufacturers to train drone pilots on agricultural drone technology.

And the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) published an approval list of agricultural drones that can be used directly with exemptions.

“We are excited about these advances in regulatory frameworks as they will help expand the use of agricultural drones and ultimately benefit farmers around the world,” Zhang stated.

Although DJI must be wondering now if any of its agricultural drones will be on the list of exemptions; because – if the US government has its way, there will be no DJI drone flying the US airspace in the near future.

The version of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) – bill which authorises funding for the country’s defence services for the coming year – that was approved by the House of Representatives now awaits reconciliation with the Senate version, because the Senate version does not have a section banning DJI drones in it.

Regardless, DJI has been fighting hard to stay legitimate in the USA; and a lot of drone users have been fighting by their side.

The latest to add their weight are agricultural spray drone distributors in the US, who have formed a coalition to urge lawmakers to reconsider their plans to restrict DJI’s US presence.

AgFunderNews reports that members of the new coalition — Pegasus Robotics, Rantizo, Bestway Ag, Drone Nerds, HSE-UAV, and Agri Spray Drones, who all supply DJI drones — felt compelled to team up after the House of Representatives voted to add DJI drones to the Federal Communications Commission’s ‘covered list’.

This would block DJI from getting FCC licenses for future drone models and potentially lead to the revocation of existing FCC authorisations.

“Coalition members are engaging directly with lawmakers, but we’re also encouraging customers that use DJI drones to contact their state representatives via the drone advocacy alliance to explain the significant impact a ban on DJI bans would have on the agricultural industry,” said Drone Nerds CEO Jeremy Schneiderman.

He added that the coalition is keen to address lawmakers’ security concerns and create cybersecurity standards or appropriate regulations to protect vital data across all drones, regardless of country of origin.

As for why more farmers are not ‘buying American,’ he said: “We’re an American company and we support American (drone) manufacturers.

“But our job is to provide our customers with the best solution to get their spraying done. Today those solutions happen to be non-American solutions, and we would be doing a disservice to our customers by bringing them products with fewer features, that are less reliable, and are three times the price.

“I support the US government subsidising US manufacturers although I don’t necessarily agree that subsidies from the Chinese government are the reason why DJI is so far ahead of US manufacturers; they just started earlier and built a large advantage over competitors very early on.”

On the argument that the US government is worried for the security of its citizens, expressing fears that DJI drone collect data that can be stored on DJI serves in China, and therefore make it available to the Chinese government; the coalition this might be overblown.

“There has been no factual evidence suggesting that data collected by agricultural drones is being provided to the Chinese government,” said Bryan Sanders, president, HSE-UAV.

“On the contrary, companies like DJI have proactively and voluntarily implemented geofence flight restrictions for restricted airspace, demonstrating a commitment to security, not espionage.

“To truly outpace China, we need to invest in our own capabilities. I urge lawmakers to prioritise funding American manufacturing and research while carefully considering the complexities of transitioning away from existing technologies. This will require collaboration between policymakers, industry leaders, and agricultural experts to forge a sustainable path forward.”