Entrepreneurs of the air: Sprayer drones as mediators of volumetric agriculture

摘要

The article investigates in empirical detail the air-bound practices, expectations and imaginaries that arise from the development and commercialisation of the first authorised drone system in Europe for the automated application of pesticides, which has been developed and sold and is piloted by a Swiss startup company. Sprayer drones make the air relevant for agricultural practices and processes in novel, inherently functionalised and commercialised ways, such is the article's basic argument. Thus, the aerial realm is being encountered as an object of pragmatically motivated alliances and competitions, which depend on the agendas and organisational structures of the stakeholders involved. This leads to a critical discussion of the issues surrounding the increasing instrumentalisation of the air for agro-entrepreneurial purposes, and opens up a wider reflection on how agriculture relates to the air and, indeed, on how to develop a properly 'volumetric thinking' in contemporary rural studies.