Crimson Publishers Mini Review

Wings to the Research

Intention to Use Drones in Agriculture:

Evidence from Greece
Constantina Costopoulou*, Sotirios Karetsos, Maria Ntaliani and Ioannis
Rizakos
Informatics Laboratory, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development
Agricultural University of Athens, Greece

ISSN: 2637-7659
Abstract
Nowadays, the advancements of drone technology are increasing exponentially. Drones have become
very popular and are used in various business sectors, including but not limited to, civil protection,
logistics, filmmaking, construction, environment and agriculture. The prospects offered by drones for
the agricultural sector are constantly expanding. Some typical drone applications are soil sampling
and fertilizing, pesticide spraying, animal population surveillance, real-time imagery and sensor data
collection, and field management. These can result in cost and time saving, reduced labor intensity,
improved crop quality, and increased yields, thus enabling smart and precision agriculture. The purpose
of this study is to investigate farmers’ awareness and intention to use drones in daily agricultural
practice. The research focuses on the case of Greece and obtains data from personal interviews with fifty
farmers. The findings reveal that although Greek farmers have a positive attitude towards using drones
in their cultivation activities, they lack knowledge and skills. To drive drone agricultural applications
acceptance and use, policy makers, agricultural extension officers and researchers should cooperate in
*Corresponding author: Constantina planning, development and education. The paper concludes with guidelines for facilitating the adoption
Costopoulou, Informatics Laboratory, De- of agriculture drone applications by agricultural stakeholders.
partment of Agricultural Economics and
Keywords: Drones; Unmanned Aerial Vehicles; Agriculture; Farmers; Agricultural practices; Greece
Rural Development Agricultural University
of Athens, Greece

Submission: January 29, 2022 Introduction

Published: February 14, 2022 Drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), combined with other Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) create new prospects for various research areas and
Volume 10 - Issue 3 business sectors, such as energy, infrastructure, transportation, logistics, natural disasters,
How to cite this article: Constantina
healthcare, agriculture and environment. It is expected that drone services market size will
Costopoulou*, Sotirios Karetsos, reach $40.7 billion by 2026, from $13.9 billion in 2021 [1]. Globally, the agriculture drone
Maria Ntaliani and Ioannis Rizakos. market share is expected to witness notable growth till 2026, owing to rise in venture funding
Intention to Use Drones in Agriculture: for deployment of drones in this sector. The introduction of drone technology in agriculture
Evidence from Greece. Mod Concep Dev
Agrono. 10(3). MCDA. 000736. 2022.
promises to foster innovations for improving sustainable agricultural production [2-4]. Drones
DOI: 10.31031/MCDA.2022.10.000736 are commonly used for soil sampling and fertilizing, pesticide spraying, animal population
surveillance, real-time imagery and sensor data collection from farm fields minimizing the
Copyright@ Constantina Costopoulou. need for physical presence through the fields, observation and control of the canopy and the
This article is distributed under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
infrastructures, sowing, enabling smart and precision agriculture [5,6].
International License, which permits
Agriculture in Greece plays a significant role for economic and social cohesion at regional
unrestricted use and redistribution
provided that the original author and and national level. Within the Greek Digital Transformation Strategy for 2020-2025, drone
source are credited. technology is proposed for various cases in agriculture, such as for improving the living
conditions of animals through facilitating pasture management and putting into operation the
spraying of soil activator, as well as for remote forest surveillance through detecting possible
fire outbreaks [7]. However, drones are not yet adopted by Greek agricultural stakeholders
(e.g., farmers, animal breeders, cooperatives, public agencies, institutions). In this light, the
purpose of this empirical research is to investigate Greek farmers’ awareness and intention of
use of drones in daily agricultural practice. Specifically, personal interviews were conducted
with farmers from Lamia in central Greece a fertile rural and livestock area from ancient years.

Modern Concepts & Developments in Agronomy 1016

 MCDA.000736. 10(3).2022 1017

Survey design and results than one of the following cultivations: olive trees, cotton, and
cereals. 82% cultivate olive trees, 80% cultivate cotton and 66%
For the objectives of this research a questionnaire for farmers
cultivate cereals. In terms of cultivated area, 50% of farmers
was designed, partially based on the work of [8]. The first version
cultivate more than 10 hectares, 24% cultivate between 9 to 10
of the questionnaire was initially distributed to three farmers in
hectares, 20% cultivate between 5 to 8 hectares and 8% cultivate up
order to check and revise it. Then, the revised questionnaire was
to 5 hectares. The number of holdings of cultivated land by farmers
distributed to farmers from Lamia in print (collected personal
is as follows: 68% cultivate up to 10 fields, 22% cultivate 11 to
interviews). The questionnaire was divided into three parts,
20 fields, and only 10% cultivate more than 20 fields. The sample
namely demographics, agricultural profile, and drone intention of
consists of a typical case of Greek farmers, since they acquire small
use in agricultural activities. A total of fifty valid questionnaires
sized and fragmented agricultural holdings, comprising a persistent
were collected. The survey was conducted between January and
restriction for Greek agriculture development [9].
February 2021. In the following, the survey results are presented.

Demographics Intention to use drones in agricultural activities

Regarding the demographics of the sample, 80% were male 78% are aware of what a drone is and 12% are not aware but
and 20% were female. More than half of the sample (58%) were they would like to be informed about it. However, 10% neither know
40-65 years old, 34% were 18-39 years old and 8% were over 65 nor want to be informed in the future. Likewise, they have watched
years old. Concerning the educational level, 66% have completed drone application, live or on a digital device, for spraying (78%) or
secondary education, 18% possess a higher education degree, and soil testing (10%). 12% have not watched any agriculture drone
16% have completed primary education. application. From these farmers, the majority (76%) found it easy
to use drones and 24% consider it difficult to use them. In general,
Agricultural profile 70% of farmers would like to use drones in practice in today’s farm
The farmers who participated in the survey activate in more fields. On the other hand, 30% were reluctant (Table 1).

Table 1: Intention to use drones in agricultural activities.

Question Percentage (%)

I know what a drone is 78
I do not know what a drone is but I would like to know in the future 12
I do not know what a drone is and I don’t want to know in the future 10
I have seen the use of a drone in spraying 78
I have seen the use of a drone in soil testing 10
I have not seen the use of a drone 12
I think that it is easy to use a drone 76
I think that it is difficult to use a drone 24
I would like to use a drone in practice 70
I would not like to use a drone in practice 30

In the following, the farmers’ reasons of reluctance are studied. Finally, 20% believe that they do not have the time to learn how
From the farmers that would not like to use a drone in practice, to use it. It has to be noted that despite the fact that many have
66.70% didn’t have the chance to use a drone, 40% believe that watched how a drone is used, they think that they do not need it
they do not need it and it is difficult to use, 33.33% do not know probably because they do not know how to use it. These results are
how to use it. A small proportion (6.67%) are afraid of using it. summarized in Table 2.

Table 2: Farmers’ reasons of reluctance to use drones in practice.

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree/Nor Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

I don’t know how to use it 13.33% 20.00% 13.33% 13.33% 33.33%
I’m afraid to use it 26.67% 20.00% 6.67% 33.33% 6.67%
I don’t have time to learn how to use it 0% 40.00% 6.67% 26.67% 20.00%
It is difficult to use 0% 33.33% 20.00% 0% 40.00%
I don’t need it 13.33% 6.67% 6.67% 26.67% 40.00%
It didn’t have the chance to use it 0% 0% 0% 26.67% 66.70%

Regarding the prospects of drone applications, 60% of the agricultural practices and only 14% believe that they are not
farmers consider they are much more efficient than the existing efficient. Moreover, 86% believe that they save a lot of time, while

Mod Concep Dev Agrono Copyright © Constantina Costopoulou

 MCDA.000736. 10(3).2022 1018

6% believe that they do not help to save time. Additionally, 64% The proposed guidelines can contribute to reap the benefits
believe that they would help them to reduce cultivation costs and of drone applications, namely better resource management, crop
only 14% believe that they would not. Despite the findings reported, quality improvement, yield increase, labor intensity reduction, time
it is important to note that this survey has some limitations. Firstly, and cost saving and job opportunities for youth. It is hoped that
the sample mainly presents gender imbalance, including a very the above guidelines can be beneficial for driving policy makers and
high prevalence of males, not reflecting the actual proportion in the agricultural stakeholders towards adopting the robust drone tech-
Greek agricultural labor force. Secondly, the number of participants nology. However, strategic decisions and policy adaptations and im-
is small, since the data were collected during restriction period provements are needed. This involves careful requirements analy-
imposed to control COVID-19 outbreak. However, traditional sis and cooperation of all agricultural stakeholders. Future research
face-to-face interviews were preferred due to concerns regarding will focus on developing an acceptance framework of agriculture
the validity and generalizability of findings from online surveys drone applications for rural and disadvantaged communities.
conducted in this time period [10], as well as farmers’ lack of ICT
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