Future of farming: smart autonomous drones with eyes on the field

Farmers have another tool to help them in the field. With smartphones in hand, tech-savvy farmers are able to fly heavy duty drones out to do everything from crop dusting to surveying the health of the plants. And with smarter software, drones can do more autonomously, making the process more efficient and at far lower cost than hiring a specialised pilot to man an aircraft over the fields. While makers have offered agriculture drones to the market for two decades now, adoption is tiny, according to Xaircraft, a Chinese maker that's starting to expand into the U.S. It estimates only 2 percent of farmers in China use drones, in part because of lower awareness, and because the technology wasn't that user-friendly before. But now with autonomous UAVs and smartphone apps, it's all set to change, a spokesperson said.