Field robots: agro drones with pesticides will be allowed to villages and reservoirs
The minimum distance from settlements, farms and national parks to the agricultural drone flight zone is proposed to be tripled from 2 km to 700 m. The initiative of the State Duma Committee on Agrarian Issues is aimed at extending the work of drones to most lands — current restrictions block the development of this area. Deputies and agrarians insist that the accuracy of agricultural drones is extremely high, and the consumption is lower. The recommendations have already been sent to the government, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rospotrebnadzor. Izvestia studied them and learned how the rules of the game for farmers and beekeepers will change, as well as how safe it is for nature and humans.
How is it proposed to expand the use of agrodrons
In Russia, a number of administrative barriers prevent the use of UAVs in agriculture, according to an appeal from the State Duma Committee on Agrarian Issues to the Ministry of Agriculture, Rospotrebnadzor and several other departments.
It says that the use of drones saves up to 20% of plant protection products, reduces fuel costs, and provides targeted application of chemicals, thereby minimizing the burden on the ecosystem. In addition, drones can carry out processing where it is not available to other types of equipment. But now, the deputies say, it is almost impossible to use them effectively.
In particular, they recommended that Rospotrebnadzor reduce the protective zones when treating fields with pesticides and chemicals using agrodrons to 700 m. Currently, the distance when spraying chemicals from settlements, drinking water sources, nature reserves, nature parks, cattle yards, poultry farms and fishing ponds is 2 km.
Drone processing is performed at a lower altitude compared to airplanes and helicopters, so the introduction of drugs is more accurate and there is no risk to the health of residents of nearby settlements from reducing the distance, Yulia Ogloblina, deputy chairman of this Duma committee, explained to Izvestia.
— It is planned to allow the preparation and loading of working solutions directly at the border of the treated area, — said the deputy. — Unlike aviation, where refueling near the field is prohibited, it is supposed to establish more flexible requirements for UAVs. There are difficulties for manufacturers of plant protection products in certifying their preparations for working with agrodrons. But the issue has been taken under control and the necessary regulatory framework will be developed.
The committee recommended to the Ministry of Agriculture to harmonize the mandatory requirements for drones and ground vehicles, equating them. This will reduce the risk of bringing business entities to administrative responsibility during federal control.
The deputies asked the regional authorities to assign responsibility for information and legal support for aerial processing to relevant officials. They should create an up-to-date regulatory framework, monitor available government support measures, and ensure that this information is communicated to farmers and businesses in a timely manner.
Drones as a productivity tool
Starting this year, the Ministry of Agriculture will set plans for the regions on the area of field cultivation by agricultural drones and unmanned vehicles, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev said in early February. He called the development of this area a significant tool for increasing productivity.
Izvestia appealed to the Ministry of Agriculture, Rospotrebnadzor and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment with a request to comment on the deputies' proposals, including how the safety of the population and products of livestock farms, as well as national parks, would be respected in the event of a reduction in protective zones.
The press service of the Ministry of Agriculture confirmed to Izvestia that the recommendations are being considered. The ministry also stressed that there are currently no restrictions on the use of UAVs as a tool for applying plant protection products.
"Since 2023, the Volga State Zonal Machine Testing Station has been conducting research in the field of the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in agriculture," the department said. — Drones are recognized as suitable for crop care and plant protection. Based on this, the Ministry of Agriculture has amended the government decree, in which the parameters and indicators of unmanned aircraft systems are equated to those of ground-based sprayers.
In 2025, about 600 thousand hectares were processed with the help of drones. It is planned that by 2028 this figure will grow to 2 million hectares. In 2024, the Ministry developed methodological recommendations for the use of UAS in crop production, including a review of drone models and their use in agricultural work.
Why are they asking to shorten the distance
Agrodrones are still subject to the rules of civil aviation, which makes it difficult to coordinate field processing, Rais Sabirov, associate professor at Kazan State Agrarian University and head of the Volga Region Service Center, told Izvestia.
One of the problems is outdated standards in the state catalog of pesticides and agrochemicals approved by the Ministry of Agriculture. The list is focused on traditional aviation — An-2 aircraft and Mi-2 helicopters — with a working fluid consumption of 25-100 liters/ha.
Modern drones use ultra—low-volume spraying technology - only 3-4 liters/ha. Formally, they can be used, but the current regulations require the use of a significantly larger volume of liquid, which makes the process ineffective.
There is a legal conflict: pesticides are allowed to be used only according to the instructions (state catalog), but it does not specify the technical parameters for using drones.
— Formally, there is no ban, but the lack of agreed rules creates risks of prosecution, — the expert explained. — The current norm — a safety zone of 2 km — makes the use of drones almost impossible. Due to the dense buildings, the proximity of farms and reservoirs, it is almost impossible to find a suitable field.
According to him, reducing the protective zone to 700 m will allow using significantly more land for legal aircraft processing, while maintaining the necessary level of security.
This approach is a reflection of real technological progress in agriculture, agreed Mikhail Goncharov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Greenlife Factory.
"Modern agricultural drones are highly accurate unmanned vehicles, so the risk of uncontrolled chemical drift is significantly lower than with classical aerial spraying," he said.
It is important to allow the use of already registered pesticides using drones faster, according to the expert of the Popular Front. Analytics", member of the Committee of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation on entrepreneurship in real estate Viktor Zhurba.
In his opinion, it is necessary to introduce a simplified procedure for making changes to registration dossiers. This will allow farmers to quickly and legally use proven drugs with high-precision unmanned vehicles.
All pesticides are divided into several main classes. Herbicides are designed to control weeds, insecticides are designed to protect plants from harmful insects, and fungicides are designed to prevent and destroy plant diseases caused by fungi. Fertilizers and micro-fertilizers are separately distinguished, providing adequate nutrition for crops. They can also be applied using sprayers, aircraft and unmanned vehicles.
"The use of aviation, including unmanned aircraft, is primarily due to the need to preserve crops," said the expert. "For high—stemmed crops such as sunflower or rapeseed, the arrival of ground sprayers in the field inevitably leads to trampling of plants and a significant decrease in yield. The aviation processing method avoids these losses.
What is the danger of pesticides?
Currently, there are almost no pesticides and agrochemicals in Russia, the effectiveness and safety of which have been experimentally confirmed when used from drones, said Dmitry Rybakov, a researcher at the GUU Engineering Project Management Center.
"Such research is underway in the world, but it is at an early stage," he said. — The main differences from ground-based equipment are higher concentrations of drugs, smaller droplet size and a different distribution of air flows created by drone propellers.
According to him, it is necessary to conduct this work more actively and develop new rules for the use of pesticides and agrochemicals using UAVs. The safety of people and the environment must remain a key factor in implementing such changes.
"The transition to a 700-meter zone is possible precisely due to improved process control, operator training and the use of special standards that take into account the specific features of air spraying," the expert believes.
Sanitary protection zones can be of different sizes, said Dmitry Levashov, head of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the interregional NGO Union for Chemical Safety.
"Such zones are needed to minimize the negative impact on both humans and the environment," he recalled. — For example, the area for land-based pesticide treatment is set at 300 m. For aircraft processing — 2 km, and for honey—bearing apiaries - 5 km.
But agricultural producers do not always comply with these requirements.
— There have been repeated complaints from regional associations of beekeepers that bees have been poisoned. At the same time, there is a very big problem with beekeeping in Russia, the number of apiaries is decreasing and decreasing," the expert said.
The danger is not only high doses of pesticides that cause acute intoxication, but also prolonged consumption of products with a small, almost imperceptible amount of them. This can lead to chronic problems, warned Ekaterina Kashukh, a gastroenterologist and expert at the Hemotest laboratory.
Pesticides disrupt the endocrine system — they mimic hormones and interfere with their normal production. They also harm the nervous system, increasing the risk of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Having a mutagenic effect, these substances increase the likelihood of cancer and immune diseases.
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