Establishing drone technology to agriculture as a service provider

Abstract

Drones have opened a broad range of opportunities for agriculture and businesses working with drones. However, there is not much research done in Finland and the whole business model is new. Drones have been used around the world to help with tasks done manually by humans. Global markets have shown the advantages of drones for farming and also financial potential for businesses. This business possibility was examined to gain valuable information. Implementing the drones in agriculture in Finland faces many problems including the lack of knowledge and professional pilots. Also, the climate in Finland affects all parties of drone operators, including pilots/businesses and farms. Study was not executed to give direct answers on questions, but to give base for the future studies and projects. The objective of this study was to examine market opportunities for drone service providers and to work as a benchmark for future studies. Topic was examined with a survey. Methods used to collect data were qualitative and quantitative. Quantitative data was used to build general guidelines for the research. the qualitative study complemented the findings of the quantitative study. Respondents answered multiple-choice questions and open-ended questions from which qualitative data were collected. Survey gathered primary data. Secondary data were collected from US based sources to give reference on financial side. The primary data of the study was collected with a Google Forms survey tool. The conducted survey gathered 23 responses from the professionals working in agriculture. The collected data was then analyzed and compared to secondary data and potential of market and information introduced. The market research identified an opportunity for business to build profitable business. Despite the small amount of responses, the data show the potential to create business by providing drone piloting services to farms in Finland. Awareness was at a good level and therefore the study also recommends deeper research based on the research work done. Research in the field has been very limited and the best benchmarks can be found in other markets outside Finland. The application of other markets operating models in Finland is a good starting point until more comprehensive regional research has been done. Without companies in the industry, accurate calculations were difficult to implement. It confirms the view that the data from this study cannot be directly applied in practice but can be used as a benchmark.