This is being done around the world and is especially cost effective in smaller farms.
A proposal has been made in Nicaragua to make the rules on the use of drones more flexible in order to reduce costs in activities such as spraying of agricultural plantations.
According estimates by UPANIC, up to $40 per acre could be saved in the fumigation of plantations using drones.
The president of the Union of Agricultural Producers in Nicaragua (UPANIC) explained to Elnuevodiario.com.ni that “… the use of drones in agricultural plantations allows analysis to be made of the level of moisture in the soil, the degree of compaction or presence of organic material. ‘If you have forty hectares planted with cane and the drone tells you that water is only required in 25 because in the other 15 there is enough water, you save on the cost structure’.”
See also: “The Business of Drones“
The current rules on Drones established by the Nicaraguan Civil Aeronautics Institute (INAC) prohibit their use over a height of one hundred feet.
“… For some farmers paying ten thousand dollars for analysis to carried out with drones or satellites on plantations with an average of two hundred hectares (284 “manzanas”) is now profitable, because the information received guarantees high yields.”