Europe Agriculture Drones Market Research Report: Forecast (2023-2028)

Market Definition

An agriculture drone is the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) used primarily for crop monitoring & analyzing the crop growth stages, health, and soil variations. Along with crop monitoring purposes, drones are also used for spraying pesticides & fertilizers, seeding, livestock monitoring, and other purposes for optimizing the crop yield & increasing the production of the crops.

Market Insights

The Europe Agriculture Drones Market is projected to grow at a CAGR of around 20% during the forecast period, i.e., 2023-28, due to the steady decline in the human workforce, growing emphasis on smart farming, and rising government initiatives toward the development of the agriculture sector. The change in climatic conditions, fluctuation in the annual rainfall, and declining farming lands have been some of the prominent factors for adopting smart farming methods in Europe.

With the adoption of smart farming techniques, technologies such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs), Image Processing, Machine Learning, Big Data, Cloud Computing, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), and several others are gaining traction in the region.

Additionally, the surging government initiatives towards smart farming methods & the adoption of the transition to an agri-food 4.0 technique would also propel the requirement for agricultural drones in the coming years. Furthermore, the surging population across the globe & rising food demand would also attribute to the requirement for the application of drones in the agricultural sector.

As a consequence, drones would be very effective in monitoring crops & preventing any kind of deformity in the cultivation process. Accordingly, the adoption of smart farming techniques & rapid technological advancements is predicted to drive the rapid growth of the Europe Agriculture Drones market over the coming years.

Market Segmentation

Based on Drone Type:

• Fixed Wing
• Rotary Blade
• Hybrid

Among them, the Rotary Blades drone type has grown at a sizeable rate, owing to their advantages of hovering & flying in every direction, i.e., horizontally & vertically. This drone is also popular among European customers as it does not require a runway or launcher for take-off & landing.

Additionally, the rotary blade drone is available at a low cost compared to the fixed wing, which makes it the prominent choice of customers in the region. Therefore, due to the mentioned characteristics & the cost-efficient feature, the demand for rotary blade drones is projected to grow in the Europe Agriculture Drones market during the forecast period.

Based on Application:

• Crop Monitoring
• Soil & Field Analysis
• Planting & Seeding
• Crop Spray
• Livestock Monitoring
• Others (Smart Greenhouse, Irrigation Management, etc.)

Crop monitoring accounted for a major share of the Europe Agriculture Drone market for dealing with various crop production challenges such as unpredictable weather, pest detection, crop health, water requirement status, etc. The application of drones for crop monitoring helps in detecting these challenges & allows the farmers to take necessary steps like pest spraying, irrigating, etc.

Moreover, the application provides massive-scale surveillance of the crops in the least time, compared to satellite imagery & manual surveillance. Further, the presence of high disposable income & increased literacy rates among the farmers of European countries has also propelled the adoption of drones for crop monitoring purposes.

Based on Farm Type:

• Fruits & Vegetables
• Field Crops
• Dairy & Livestock
• Others (Flowers, Nursery Plants, etc.)

Here, Field Crops hold a considerable share of the Europe Agriculture Drones market owing to the larger share of field crops in the agricultural land in Europe. Europe has been one of the major contributors to cereal production across the globe. Additionally, the yearly expansion in the overall production of cereals & the adoption of smart farming techniques for generating maximum output would also drive the application of drones in the coming years. According to Eurostat, in 2021, cereal production in the European Union was 12.1 million tons more than in 2020.

Thus, the utilization of drones would grow for crop monitoring, pesticide or fertilizer spraying, and other purposes in the region to enhance the production of the crops, subsequently fulfilling the global & regional demand for cereals.

Regional Landscape

Geographically, the Europe Agriculture Drones Market expands across:

• Germany
• The UK
• France
• Italy
• Spain
• The Netherlands
• Rest of Europe

Of all the countries across the region, Germany acquired a dominant share of the Europe Agriculture Drones market due to the growing digitalization of the agriculture sector in the country. Agriculture digitization is also expanding as a result of growing government initiatives to develop the agricultural sector. In 2019 the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) launched the “Digital Experimental Fields” to support the digitization process in German agriculture.

Moreover, 14 different research projects at various locations in Germany have been initiated, dealing with all relevant topics of the agricultural industry. Thus, farmers across the country have been gradually adopting drones as an initiative to support smart farming & digitization to boost crop production in the country.

Furthermore, drones with better crop monitoring abilities provide information about crop health & force farmers to take relevant steps such as fertilizing, irrigating, etc. As a result of the growing emphasis of the government and customers on the adoption of smart farming techniques, the requirement for Agriculture drones in Germany is estimated to propel.

Market Dynamics:

Key Driver: Shortage of Labor in the Europe Agriculture Sector to Drive the Adoption of Agricultural Drones

Agriculture is one of the sectors requiring a large workforce for cultivating crops. Europe has been largely dependent upon migrant laborers from African & Asian countries for crop production in the regional countries. However, in recent years, European countries witnessed a decline in the number of migrant laborers, which gave rise to the adoption of agricultural drones among the farmers of Europe.

The rising labor shortage caused by factors such as the aging population, low wages, and immigration disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic is encouraging demand for agricultural UAVs/drones. According to the European government, in 2021, several European countries experienced a severe shortage of migrant labor in their agricultural sectors at a time when their presence was necessary to make sure & maintain the production of spring fruits & vegetables.

In addition, as per European Commission, over the last decade, the total labor force participation ratio in agriculture in Europe fell from 10.8 million to 8.9 million in 2020. Hence, to eliminate the dependency on the manual workforce for planting, spraying pesticides, crop monitoring, and other purposes, the adoption of agricultural drones would spur substantially during the forecast period.

Possible Restraint: Stringent Government Regulations & Restrictions for the Use of Drones for Agriculture Purposes

The Europe Agriculture Drones market is rapidly expanding and is expected to broaden further due to several driving factors. However, this growth is restrained by the government regulations imposed on the usage of agriculture drones owing to the data privacy issues & harmful effects on the environment caused due to crop spraying purposes. Spraying using drones would be an ideal solution for European farmers, but a 2009 directive (European Commission) on the limited use of plant protection products limits airborne spraying of chemicals.

Presently, the legislative framework in Europe differs in the use of drone technology for agriculture. Countries such as Germany permit the use of drones for spraying pesticides & fertilizers, whereas Belgium has only permitted the use of drones for crop monitoring purposes. Hence, with new drone legislation in development, it may be possible to tackle some of these differences with a harmonized set of European rules in the coming future.

Key Questions Answered in the Market Research Report:

1. What are the overall statistics or estimates (Overview, Size- By Value, Forecast Numbers, Segmentation, Shares) of the Europe Agriculture Drones Market?
2. What are the country-wise industry size, growth drivers, and challenges?
3. What are the key innovations, opportunities, current & future trends, and regulations in the Europe Agriculture Drones Market?
4. Who are the key competitors, their key strengths & weaknesses, and how do they perform in the Europe Agriculture Drones Market based on the competitive landscape?
5. What are the key results derived from surveys conducted during the Europe Agriculture Drones Market study?