Machinery, Tech & Automation

Drones & Aerial Survey

Excellent for mapping and scouting. Legally constrained for spraying.

Drones deliver genuine value in mapping, crop scouting, livestock checking and infrastructure inspection, and are legally constrained for pesticide application in a way the marketing rarely makes clear. This module manages operational authorisation, flight planning and logging, imagery processing, and states the aerial application position plainly so investment decisions are not made on a false premise.

Start with Drones See how it works

12 capabilities
3 linked schemes
Offline capable

12: Capabilities in this module
5: Interactive tools
3: Linked support schemes
5: Data integrations
5: Measures reported

The ground reality

What is actually happening in drones in the UK

Aerial application of plant protection products is prohibited by default under the Plant Protection Products (Sustainable Use) Regulations 2012, permitted only under a specific Health and Safety Executive aerial spraying permit and considered case by case. Spreading untreated seed and fertiliser, cover crop seeding, and application of certain organic products and biostimulants are not caught by the same prohibition. Civil Aviation Authority rules govern operator competence, categories and operational authorisation.

Figures are as published at the time of writing. Farm policy and payment rates change frequently — verify against the primary source before relying on any number here.

Capabilities

What Drones does

Every capability below is built on the same underlying record, so entering something once is enough for it to appear wherever it is needed.

Record and plan

Operator competence, remote pilot certification and currency tracking
Operational authorisation management for Specific category flights
Flight planning with airspace, restriction and permission checking

Operate and monitor

Flight logging with duration, area, pilot and aircraft
Aerial imagery capture planning for crop scouting and mapping
Orthomosaic and elevation model processing and storage

Comply and evidence

Crop scouting workflows with georeferenced findings
Livestock checking and welfare inspection flights
Infrastructure and building inspection records

Analyse and improve

Aerial application legal position checker by product and purpose
Permitted aerial operations register — seeding, spreading and approved products
Insurance, risk assessment and pre-flight checklist records

Interactive

Tools you actually use, not screens you read

These are working interfaces inside the module — maps, calculators, planners and dashboards that respond to your own holding data.

Flight planner with airspace and restriction overlay

Builder

Aerial application legality checker returning permitted or prohibited with the reason

Wizard

Imagery processing queue with orthomosaic output to the field map

Map

Pilot currency dashboard with expiry alerting

Dashboard

Drone service cost comparator against ground-based alternatives

Tool

End to end

How Drones runs, start to finish

The module is modelled as a state machine, so at any point the business knows exactly which stage every record is at and what has to happen next.

1

Confirm pilot competence and authorisation

This is where the record starts, and getting it right here removes work at every later stage.
2

Plan the flight and check airspace

The platform prompts only for what this stage genuinely needs, and carries everything forward.
3

Complete the pre-flight risk assessment

Conflicts with scheme rules, regulatory windows and existing commitments are flagged here rather than discovered later.
4

Fly and log

Capture works offline, so this stage is completed in the field rather than remembered afterwards.
5

Process imagery into the field record

Everything recorded at this point becomes evidence automatically, in every format that will later ask for it.
6

Act on findings within the crop record

This is the stage most businesses currently do twice, once for the operation and once for the paperwork.
7

Retain evidence for insurance and audit

Results feed the whole-farm view, so the effect of this stage is visible against the rest of the business.
8

Review currency and renew authorisations

The cycle closes here, and what is learned is carried into next season's plan rather than lost.

Who uses it

Built around four real jobs, not one generic user

Each of these people needs something different from the same record. The module is designed so none of them has to work around the others.

Farm manager

Own drone operation

Needs to know what is actually legal before buying a spray drone.

Drone service provider

Contract survey

Needs authorisation, logs and insurance evidence in one place.

Agronomist

Crop scouting

Needs imagery georeferenced into the field record.

Insurance assessor

Damage claims

Needs dated aerial evidence of crop condition.

Schemes and funding

Support schemes this module works with

Agrivencia holds these schemes as data, so eligibility, payment rates, caps and windows update the day they change rather than at the next software release.

England

Farming Equipment and Technology Fund

Contribute towards the cost of specified equipment and technology that improves productivity, slurry management or animal health and welfare.

Round-based, usually open for a defined application period. Defra / Rural Payments Agency England

Farming Innovation Programme

Fund research and development that solves practical problems for farmers and growers.

Competition rounds through the year. Defra with Innovate UK England

Improving Farm Productivity Grant

Support investment in robotics, automation and on-farm energy that raises productivity.

Round-based. Defra / Rural Payments Agency

Rates, caps and windows change frequently and sometimes without notice. Always confirm against the current published scheme rules before applying.

Measurement

How you will know it is working

The module reports against these measures from the day it is switched on, so the value is demonstrable rather than assumed.

01Hectares surveyed
02Flights logged with complete records
03Findings actioned
04Cost per hectare surveyed
05Authorisation compliance

Questions answered

What people ask about Drones

Does this replace the software I already use?

Not necessarily. Agrivencia integrates with authoritative sources and mainstream packages rather than insisting on replacing them. Where an incumbent does one job well, the platform connects to it; where the job spans several systems and nobody does it, the platform does it.

Will it work where I have no signal?

Yes. Field capture in Drones is offline first, storing locally and synchronising when a connection returns. Only around a fifth of UK farms report reliable signal across the whole holding, so this is a design assumption rather than a feature.

What happens when the scheme rules change?

Scheme rules are held as data rather than code, so a rate change, a cap change or a window closure is a content update that takes effect the same day. The platform also alerts you to what the change does to your own position.

Who owns the data I put in?

You do. The Farm Data Charter gives you a complete export in open formats at any time, and every instance of data sharing requires an explicit, revocable consent that is visible in your account.

Does it work if I farm across a border?

Yes, and that is one of the main reasons the platform exists. A business with land in more than one nation sees one reconciled view rather than two portals, with obligations and deadlines from both administrations in a single calendar.

Can my agronomist or land agent use it too?

Yes. You grant scoped, time-limited access per holding and per module, and you can revoke it in one click. Advisers never get a shared password or a blanket view.

What is the biggest limitation of this module?

Illegal aerial application. Mitigated by an explicit legality checker rather than silence. We would rather state that plainly than let you discover it after signing.

Because everything shares one record, adding a neighbouring module usually costs less work than it saves.

Machinery, Fleet & Contracting What it cost, what it did, and whether you should have hired it instead. Precision Agriculture, Guidance & Variable Rate The fastest payback in farm technology, properly evidenced. Robotics & Field Automation Promising, capital-heavy, and best shared before it is owned. Satellite & Remote Sensing Free imagery, used properly, beats expensive imagery used occasionally. IoT Sensors & Rural Connectivity Design for the signal you have, not the signal you wish you had.

See Drones running on your own holding

Thirty minutes, using your parcels, your schemes and your enterprises rather than a sample farm. No obligation and no sales script — if it does not fit your business we will say so.

Free tier available
No card required
Your data stays yours

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