Vladimir Molyanov: “Agricultural drones deliver meaningful savings in planted acreage”

These and other questions were discussed with Vladimir Molyanov, CEO of Molyanov Agro Group LLC, Chairman of the Union of Potato Growers of the Samara Region, Candidate of Agricultural Sciences, and Honoured Worker of the Agro-Industrial Complex of the Russian Federation. His company specialises in potato production, while also cultivating grains, including wheat, barley, soybeans, maize, and sunflower.

– When and why did you decide to start using agricultural drones in your operations?

– Our company has been using drones since 2024 to spray tall crops, primarily sunflower. The main constraint is practical: wheeled sprayers often cannot move across the field without damaging the plants. We also tested delta planes, which are used for similar tasks, but in the end the quality did not meet our expectations.

In 2025, we turned to aircraft-based field treatment as well. Agricultural aviation continues to develop in Russia, and when we ran the numbers, the service proved both more cost-effective and faster. In the field treatment segment, agricultural aviation is a direct competitor to UAVs. We see that as a positive development, since competition helps bring down service costs and expand availability.

– What other types of agricultural work do you carry out using drones?

– We currently use agricultural drones for spraying and crop monitoring, including assessing plant density and weed pressure. In many cases, it is simply not feasible to access the middle of a field, especially without damaging the crops. Drones give us a clear, real-time view of what is happening on the ground.

– Do you use your own equipment or work with contractors?

– For now, we rely exclusively on contractors. The key constraint is staffing: there is a clear shortage of qualified professionals in this field, and in agriculture more broadly. At the same time, spraying and crop monitoring are seasonal tasks for us, so investing in our own equipment, maintaining it, and employing a dedicated specialist would not be economically justified. In practice, working with contractors delivers better efficiency.

– How did you find and select a contractor?

– I typically engage contractors based on recommendations from other farms.

– How does the use of agricultural drones affect yields and profitability?

– When it comes to field treatment, the cost per operation is roughly twice as high as working with our own ground-based sprayer. However, with very tall crops, there is often no real alternative – to avoid damaging the plants, treatment has to be carried out from the air, unless you can deploy specialised equipment with very high clearance.

Another important advantage comes from how the field is managed. When treatment is done from the air, there is no need for tramlines, which are normally left for ground machinery. This results in a meaningful saving of planted area – around 5–10%. That land can be brought back into production. Given that the value of land continues to rise, this alone makes the use of agricultural drones economically justified.

– Overall, have your expectations of using agricultural drones been met?

– From our perspective, the costs are justified, because we see the impact across all our fields – yields increase. The key requirement is that the contractor delivers on commitments and strictly adheres to treatment schedules. For us, timing is critical.

For now, wider adoption of agricultural drones is held back by limited productivity and, as a result, higher costs. The main constraint comes down to flight time and payload capacity. As both improve, the cost structure of aerial treatment will shift in a positive direction. I am confident this will happen quickly.