While regulations, or lack thereof, governing the use of crop protection chemicals applied by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) vary widely across the globe, U.S. growers and applicators are currently operating under a grace period of oversight. That isn’t likely to last long.

Neill Newton, Syngenta’s Global Drone Applications Manager, says major chemical companies are funding studies to better standardize the labeling of products that can be applied to crops by drones in hopes of reducing future red tape in product labeling for UAV use.

“The EPA has essentially told us that currently, as long as a product has an aerial label, it can be applied from a drone as long as various state regulations apply,” Newton says. “That assumes the operator has the proper licensing and certifications.

“EPA also told us that’s not going to be the case forever. They will want to assess the risks from these applications in the future, just as they assess risks from ground rigs or piloted aircraft.”

To address future regulations from EPA, and similar organizations around the world, Newton says 9 major crop protection chemical companies pooled money initially in 2021 to fund research and generate data under the Unmanned Aerial Pesticide Applications System Task Force (UAPASTF). The thrust of the project is to study drift data, human operator exposure data, and other research that agencies such as EPA, Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) and regulators in Europe and Australia will be requesting.

Current membership in the organization includes BASF Corp., Bayer…