The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones for management of crops, livestock, fisheries, forests and other natural resource-based activities represents a new technological frontier and opens up a range of exciting opportunities. UAVs offer also opportunities for grassroots’ involvement in monitoring use of and access to the resources their livelihoods depend on.
A community has been established on
www.uav4ag.org to cater for practitioners, researchers, farmers, entrepreneurs, service providers operating in developing countries and who are interested in the topic. Members of the community share their experiences in developing UAV technologies and related software applications and more importantly in making use of small UAVs to improve the assessment and management of crops, fishing grounds and other resource-based activities. Relevant events, capacity building opportunities and other resources are signalled as soon as these are known by members of the community.
Being the use of UAVs for agricultural purposes a recent phenomenon, national aviation authorities and potential users are facing new challenges linked to the use of UAVs within their skies. Hence this Community focuses also on existing and forthcoming policies, laws and regulations governing their use.
