A ban on all new foreign-made drones and components—namely from China—has been put into place recently by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) due to concerns over our national security. C.J. Miller reports how that could impact the ag industry…
“When they say Chinese and foreign-made drones, they’re really talking about DJI, because they have 80-to-90 percent of the drone market. I know in my fleet, I’m a 100-percent DJI drone user,” says Chad Colby with Colby AgTech.
He says the impact to farming won’t be felt immediately, but it will be felt beginning in a couple of years.
“The challenge is going to be in 2028, 2029, and 2030,” says Colby. “You can still buy the drones that are okay to use in the U.S. The problem is going to be the new drones—not the ones we already have today, not the ones that are already on the market, but the next generation and the generation after that. I don’t think in 2026 that you’re going to see any kind of change in aerial application or even high-resolution images.”
Colby says he’s concerned that by handcuffing that new technology, it may also indirectly handcuff many of the new advances that are being developed for use by drones in farming.
“There are a lot of farmers right now that utilize drones in a different capacity than they did maybe 5 or 10 years ago,” he says. “You were using them for basic scouting tools, but now, we’re doing application—and we’re doing serious application. I know several companies that use drones that spray hundreds of thousands of acres. We’re talking about fleets of drones. They’re using it because there’s an advantage to using that technology.”
Colby adds that an exception should be considered those new drones if they’re being deployed for agriculture use.
“Don’t kid yourself—we need to have a safe country, and we need to have safe airspace, and that’s something most people don’t know about. But, on the same place, if you got a 300-acre field in North Dakota that you want to apply fertilizer to or use a sprayer drone, I think you should be able to do that. How is that any different than an airplane? It’s just because drones, whether we like to admit it or not, are still in their infancy. What that space looks like ten years from now will be nothing like it is today,” says Colby.
The FCC says the ban won’t affect any previously-purchased drones that are already being used in the U.S.
CLICK HERE to read the official statement from the Federal Communications Commission.
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