Spraying hillside vineyards with drones finally becomes law in France

On April 9, by 237 votes in favour and 97 against, French senators adopted a bill aimed at improving disease control for crops using remotely piloted aircraft systems.

The law authorises the use of drones for spraying low-risk plant protection products, biological control products and sprays permitted for organic farming, on fields with a minimum gradient of 20%, banana plantations and ground-managed mother vine plantations.

It also allows trials to be conducted over a three-year period for other types of agricultural land when drones have obvious benefits from a human health and environmental perspective. Supervised by the national French food safety agency Anses, the trials will be assessed and if conclusive, become permanent.

The Senate’s economic affairs committee, which convened on March 26, adopted the bill voted by the lower house of Parliament with no changes, at the initiative of rapporteur Henri Cabanel, himself a winegrower in the Hérault department in southern France. ″After a debate about the incline threshold that should be chosen, I convinced the committee to go for 20% rather than 30%, in accordance with what had been voted by MPs in order to avoid another reading and save time. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush″, recounts Cabanel, stressing that the Senate had twice expressed a positive viewpoint on the issue.

It is unlikely that drones will be seen flying over French vineyards during the 2025 season as the first sprays are about to start. ″Admittedly, there isn’t a lot of time″, comments Cabanel. ″As elected representatives, we have done our bit. Now the matter is the hands of the President and his administration″.