Preliminary considerations about costs and potential market of remote sensing from UAV in the Italian viticulture context

UAVs have already demonstrated to be effective in many fields. Nevertheless, at the moment, it is not still clear the type and the value of benefits they can provide for remote sensing purposes in agriculture. In particular, in the Italian context, this technique has still to demonstrate that derivable information can improve ordinary crop management. Furthermore, it is not still clear if costs are consistent with the ones of the agricultural sector and if any actual benefit can be really obtained. Some basic questions have to be answered: (a) are costs consistent with sector incomes? and (b) which is the related economic/environmental value? In this work reference values for UAV costs and productivity are proposed. A cost simulating model, based on both technical and economic considerations, and parameterized in respect of the size of the imaged area is proposed. Different UAV company paradigms are considered demonstrating that sustainable costs can be obtained only by making remote sensing skills internal to company. A brief discussion is also given, concerning (a) UAV potential market in the Italian viticulture context and (b) expected minimal composition that a company, basing its business on this type of service, should have.