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The Federal Aviation Administration has granted requests from 41 companies seeking to use drones in agriculture.

The FAA is working on a case-by-case basis to authorize the use of drones for commercial purposes until a rule governing use of unmanned aircraft systems is final.

Topcon Positioning Systems, Inc., a member of Farm Equipment Manufacturing Association, just announced it received an FAA exemption to operate Sirius Basic and Sirius Pro for aerial data collection.

Topcon’s use of the technology will be broad; its agricultural applications include field mapping and livestock management.

As of April 24, the FAA had reviewed 262 requests and granted 235.

In dozen-word descriptions from the organizations seeking exemptions, 41 applicants listed agriculture. Other interests frequently listed by the companies seeking exemptions are movie-making, construction, search-and-rescue, and real estate.

This roughly one-in-six ratio in agriculture is below projections that the industry will capture about 80% of commercial use for drones, according to AgWeb.  S