Exploring the Challenges Posed by Regulations for the Use of Drones in Agriculture in the African Context

Abstract

Global food demands have led to the rapid introduction of Information Communication Technology (ICT) innovations in the agriculture sector—one such innovation is drone technology. Drones are used in precision agriculture, including aerial observation, sensing, and the spraying of pesticides. Regulations on the use of drones are necessary because drones can violate privacy rules, data protection rights, and public peace. However, many African countries have either very restrictive regulations, or no proper regulation in place, making the process of acquiring a license for drone operation cumbersome. In this study, we present the results of a literature review that explores the current drone regulations in Sub-Saharan Africa and the results of a systematic literature review (SLR) and survey study whereby we have interviewed the relevant stakeholders, in order to understand the challenges posed by the regulations to the effective use of drones for agriculture. The results indicate that the regulations contain about 40 to 85 per cent of the provisions of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) manual on Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPASs). In addition, whilst the SLR focused on the technology, safety, ethics and regulatory hurdles towards drones, the interviewees focused on the need for skill and awareness among the responsible authorities to enforce regulations, and the need for sustainability and participatory process in defining regulations.

The Use of Drones in the Spatial Social Sciences

“…Even among OECD countries, there is substantial heterogeneity in national legal frameworks on drone regulation (Tsiamis et al, 2019). Regulations on the use of drones are necessary due to the potential for breaching privacy, data protection, and public peace (Ayamga et al, 2021). Regulations relating to licensing and operations, thus significantly vary across countries even though a substantial proportion -40 to 85% -of the provisions of legislations governing drone usage is often sourced from the manual of the International Civil Aviation Organization (Ayamga et al, 2021).…”

“…Regulations on the use of drones are necessary due to the potential for breaching privacy, data protection, and public peace (Ayamga et al, 2021). Regulations relating to licensing and operations, thus significantly vary across countries even though a substantial proportion -40 to 85% -of the provisions of legislations governing drone usage is often sourced from the manual of the International Civil Aviation Organization (Ayamga et al, 2021). Even where regulations have been harmonized, as is the case with the European Union new regulation which came into force in January 2021, stakeholders often find them cumbersome due to administrative and bureaucratic complexities in their interpretations (Alamouri et al, 2021).…”

“…This is particularly true when regulatory agencies fear lives could be at risk. In such circumstances, there is a tendency for broad restrictions which limit adoption and use of drones even for academic research (Alamouri et al, 2021;Ayamga et al, 2021). These barriers are sometimes purely financial.…”

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles in digital agriculture

“…At the same time, production costs are significantly reduced and yields are increased. Digital or smart agricultural production uses artificial intelligence, Big Data, the Internet of Things (IoT), remote monitoring methods based on satellite Earth sensing, as well as the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) of various types as the main technologies [4][5][6].…”

Resilient architecture to dynamically manage unmanned aerial vehicle networks under attack

“…As a consequence of advances in the development and miniaturization of communication technology, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are being used on a large scale in various fields, such as health (JORGE et al, 2021;ADWIBOWO, 2021), aerial photography (HODGSON; PIOVAN, 2021;, agriculture (VERMA; ALI; AGRAWAL, 2021; AYAMGA; TEKINERDOGAN; KASSAHUN, 2021), logistics companies SOLAK, 2021;DOOLE et al, 2021), movies (TAN et al, 2021;MADEMLIS et al, 2019), security (KLAUSER, 2021a;FERRÃO et al, 2020a;ZHANG et al, 2019a), surveillance (SHIN et al, 2021;JUNG;, military missions (JACKMAN, 2021;CHATURVEDI et al, 2019) etc. In the industry (CHOE; KIM; HWANG, 2021), the growing demand for UAV has the potential to increase productivity and economy, as it can be seen in recent research and reports (DRONEINDUSTRY, 2018;GOLDMAN, 2019;MEOLA, 2017;FROSTSULLIVAN, 2017).…”