A group of U.S. agricultural spray drone distributors has come together to push back against a proposed law that would ban drones made by Chinese companies.
The group aims to represent and advocate for the agricultural industry’s use of drone technology, emphasizing the importance of drones for aerial application, job creation in rural areas, and promoting precision and sustainable agriculture. The proposed H.R. 2864 Bill, which passed in the House, raises security concerns but overlooks alternatives that could address these issues without severely impacting the agricultural sector.
Drone usage in agriculture has continued to increase in recent years, with more than 3 million acres sprayed by these unmanned aircraft in 2023 alone.
Another legislation making its way through Congress seeks to effectively ban Chinese-made DJI drones in the United States due to the security risks they pose to farmers and ranchers. U.S. drone manufacturer Hylio gives some historical context to this situation and the potential of a ban.
“Basically, back in 2017, so already about seven years ago, the Department of Homeland Security put out a memo stating that they had strong reason to believe that DJI drones were sending critical information back to the Chinese government that could be used to undermine US National Security in in various ways, and they also actually made an argument back then too.
“That DJI was dangerous for using monopolistic practices and undermining the US drone market by, you know, price dumping and things of that nature. So they sent that memo out. They also said, hey, the federal government, the U.S. should not use any of these Chinese-made drones anymore for these security reasons. So then you start to see in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2019 that the Chinese-made drones were in fact banned for purchase and use by the US government. Now, fast forward to 2024, where we are today that ban, and those concerns have grown even further. And so there are calls from a lot of people to ban Chinese drone use. So not just in the public sector, but also the private sector here in the States. And that’s what this ban effectively would do.”
Erickson shares more details on the Countering CCP Drones Act which has moved through the U.S. House of Representatives.
“It was proposed by Elise Stefanik, a Representative out of New York. It passed the House, is in the Senate now, and what it will do is make DJI the largest drone manufacturer in the world, a Chinese-based company, into a covered entity as defined by the government, which means that they would not be allowed to have authorization to operate on the frequencies and communication channels in our country. So all their drones would basically become paperweights because they need those communications to to function, obviously. So, it would be a virtual ban, and we’re gonna have to see where it ends up, but that’s that’s where we currently are.”
As of 2022, foreign entities and individuals held 43.4 million acres of U.S. agricultural land, according to the USDA. China is known to own nearly 350,000 acres of farmland across 27 states.
