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.
- 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.
In the field
Drones, as it actually looks
Photography from working UK holdings alongside the interface that records it. Every frame below is a commissioned slot: the brief is stated until the photograph is taken.
Drones — a walkthrough
A working pass through drones: entering the record once, and watching it appear in the evidence pack, the calendar and the scheme application without being typed again.
- 0:00 What the module is for
- 0:48 Entering the record
- 2:05 Where it appears next
- 3:20 The evidence pack
Photography slots state their own brief until the shot is commissioned, so the layout never shifts when real images arrive.
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
Flight planner with airspace and restriction overlay
BuilderAerial application legality checker returning permitted or prohibited with the reason
Aerial application legality checker returning permitted or prohibited with the reason
WizardImagery processing queue with orthomosaic output to the field map
Imagery processing queue with orthomosaic output to the field map
MapPilot currency dashboard with expiry alerting
Pilot currency dashboard with expiry alerting
DashboardDrone service cost comparator against ground-based alternatives
Drone service cost comparator against ground-based alternatives
ToolEnd 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.
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1
Confirm pilot competence and authorisation
This is where the record starts, and getting it right here removes work at every later stage.
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2
Plan the flight and check airspace
The platform prompts only for what this stage genuinely needs, and carries everything forward.
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3
Complete the pre-flight risk assessment
Conflicts with scheme rules, regulatory windows and existing commitments are flagged here rather than discovered later.
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4
Fly and log
Capture works offline, so this stage is completed in the field rather than remembered afterwards.
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5
Process imagery into the field record
Everything recorded at this point becomes evidence automatically, in every format that will later ask for it.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Farming Equipment and Technology Fund
Contribute towards the cost of specified equipment and technology that improves productivity, slurry management or animal health and welfare.
Defra / Rural Payments Agency EnglandFarming Innovation Programme
Fund research and development that solves practical problems for farmers and growers.
Defra with Innovate UK EnglandImproving Farm Productivity Grant
Support investment in robotics, automation and on-farm energy that raises productivity.
Defra / Rural Payments AgencyRates, 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
Find
Find contractors and dealers
Filter by type, nation, distance and accreditation. Results are ranked by relevance to your holding once your holding record exists, and alphabetically before that.
6 records shown from the platform’s own register
- Module Machinery, Fleet & Contracting Flagship
- Module Precision Agriculture, Guidance & Variable Rate Core
- Module Robotics & Field Automation Core
- Module Drones & Aerial Survey Core
- Module Satellite & Remote Sensing Core
- Module IoT Sensors & Rural Connectivity Core
Benchmarking
How this compares with businesses like yours
A cohort is only useful if it is genuinely comparable, so it is built from farm type, soil grade, region and scale rather than from whoever happens to have signed up. Your own figure is never shown to anyone else.
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Hectares surveyed
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 26 Median 60 Upper quartile 85
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Flights logged with complete records
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 26 Median 61 Upper quartile 71
-
Findings actioned
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 32 Median 49 Upper quartile 68
-
Cost per hectare surveyed
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 22 Median 57 Upper quartile 72
-
Authorisation compliance
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 20 Median 51 Upper quartile 81
How the cohort is built
- Farm type
- Matched
- Soil grade
- Matched
- Region
- Matched
- Scale band
- Matched
- Cohort size
- Minimum 12 businesses, or no comparison is shown
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.
Documents
Take it away with you
Everything here is printable and works on a kitchen table with no signal. Where a document asks for an email address, it says so on the button rather than after you press it.
What UK Drones Can and Cannot Legally Do on a Farm
The practical handbook for drones: what the rules require, what the evidence has to show, and the mistakes that cost people money.
drones — evidence checklist
Every document an audit or a claim asks for, in the order it is asked for, with the validity period of each.
drones — record template
The record structure the module uses, as a spreadsheet, so a business not yet on the platform can start keeping it correctly today.
Data model reference
Entities, fields and integration points for drones, for advisers and software partners.
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