Dive Brief:
- ADM Crop Risk Services now has permission from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to use drones to improve the quality and speed of insurance claims processing.
- The technology includes the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) themselves as well as the Aeros suite of claims software.
- The drone technology, "allows us to locate and calculate crop damage and transfer that information into a claim quickly, accurately and efficiently, so our customers can get their payments faster than ever before," Greg Mills, president of ADM CRS said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
With these drones, ADM CRS can accurately and automatically measure damaged acres, corn stand counts, wind-blown or green snap acres, hail damage, and prevented planting acreage/acreage without crop vegetation. ADM CRS is still testing out the technology, but it will likely be introduced to customers in 2016. Farmers in the Midwest will have first access, and other regions will follow.
This technology is another example of how drones are being used for the development of precision agriculture and crop surveillance. Farmers also use drones to monitor whether crops are irrigated, diseased, or overrun with pests as well as to disperse chemicals, such as targeted herbicides over a single crop, among other reasons. Drones have proven to be more efficient and cost-effective than previous methods of overseeing crops, and as more agricultural and commercial drones receive federal approval, it is likely these will be a common farming technology across the country in the future.