2026: The Year of the Drones?
January 8, 2026 As another growing season begins to dawn upon agriculture, there is plenty of apprehension in the air. It’s no secret that the overall ag economy during 2025 was depressed due to a number of factors. This included low commodity prices, high crop input costs, and uncertainty with key trading partners as the tariff battles played out.
Throughout the fall and early winter 2025 trade shows, this “negative gut feeling” was mentioned numerous times by speakers and market experts. Many noted that, given the prevailing market conditions, “new equipment purchases” would be one of the first expenses cut from agricultural sectors.
And this fear was borne out during the annual Buying Intentions Survey from CropLife® Magazine. In the data collected from this survey of ag retailers regarding their spending decisions for the upcoming year, virtually all of the equipment and Smart Tech categories are expected to see flat purchases for 2026 vs. 2025. A few will see spending declines for the year.
There is one notable exception to this trend, however. For a few years now, the interest in drones for scouting and application work among ag retailers and their grower-customers has steadily improved. Indeed, many summer and fall 2025 trade shows featured numerous sessions looking at drones’ technology and regulations.
This is reflected in the numbers. According to the survey, a sizable portion of ag retailers plan to spend more money on drones than they did during the previous year. Indeed, based upon the 12th annual CropLife Buying Intentions Survey, 50% of respondents are planning to increase their purchases of drones by between 1% and more than 11% this year. The other 50% of ag retailers surveyed plan to spend the same amounts on drone purchases in 2026 as they did in 2025. Significantly, not a single respondent said their companies plan to decrease their spending on drones this year.
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