Drones get nod

The United States Federal Aviation Administration has issued the first permit for the agricultural use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones. Advanced Aviation Solutions president and chief executive Steven Edgar says his Idaho-based business will use a lightweight, fixed-wing drone to survey crop fields. The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, a trade group, says agriculture could account for 80 per cent of all commercial drone use. Drones could be used to scout out where crops are too wet, too dry, too diseased or too infested with pests; to apply chemicals; to measure the size of schools of fish; and to monitor pollution in rivers and lakes.