Agri Drone Port

Fly from our professional drone airport

Van den Borne Aardappelen leader in precision farming

Van den Borne Aardappelen has been a leader in precision farming since 2007 and has been experimenting with drones for precision farming since 2012. The use of drones for precision farming offers enormous benefits for farmers, their farms, and the environment. Crops are monitored digitally in real time, allowing immediate action to be taken where necessary to prevent issues such as drought or disease.

A win-win situation through the use of drones

Over the past six years, Van den Borne has conducted research on its test fields. Based on years of research and experience, it has been proven that having “live” and immediate insight into what is happening across the entire field makes it possible to significantly reduce the need for (preventive) irrigation, fertilization, and spraying. It turns out that the use of drones in regular work processes saves a significant amount of time, reduces costs, and contributes to ongoing agricultural research aimed at achieving profitable yields with a lower environmental impact.

The use of drones in rural areas offers benefits for agriculture, nature conservation, and water management. Drones are also a valuable tool for detecting forest fires and quickly assessing the situation during incidents.

Accelerating the use of drones in precision farming

To further explore the use of drones in the agricultural sector and identify economies of scale, Van den Borne Aardappelen took the initiative back in 2016 to further investigate and accelerate the application of drones for precision agriculture. This has since evolved into Agri Drone Port: a professional, safe, and future-proof environment dedicated to innovation and the application of drones for precision agriculture.

Safety and communication are of the utmost importance here. That is why Agri Drone Port works exclusively with certified drone pilots, and we have a dedicated air traffic controller for the test area in Reusel who oversees operations and safety. The coming years will be focused on increasingly leveraging the potential of drones to benefit people and nature—always in a safe manner, of course.

Agri Drone Port

Contact Agri Drone Port, schedule a timeslot to fly or more information? Take a look at the Agri Drone Port website itself.

Go to website

Fieldlab Drones

We have a variety of drones used in crop trials. We monitor crops from above and collect data on actual crop growth on a plot.

More information

ASSETS

Nieuws en bijeenkomsten die je slimmer maken.

RPAS airport in Reusel

An airport regulation is in force in the area of the Agri Drone Port in Reusel (Sections 8.1a and 8.64 of the Aviation Act). The Agri Drone Port Reusel is an RPAS airport with closed flight area in airspace category G and is located above Jacob van den Borne's test fields.

The flying area has 3 airport areas, each with a registered take-off and landing area of 3x3 metres. As at any airport, an official RPAS pilot must get permission from the harbour master to fly. As an RPAS pilot, you are allowed to fly in accordance with the licence you hold as a pilot after obtaining permission. For example, if you have an exemption on your ROC to go higher than regular, this will be communicated with Eindhoven Air Base as an additional notification on the morning of the flight planning.

The trial fields have about 40 data layers per point, ideal for calibrating drone sensors and monitoring crop trials to make agriculture more sustainable on a daily basis with drones. High-tech meets Agrofood with wings, an open innovation space with staffing, a harbour master and sensor and sampling facilities from the VDBorne Campus.

The primary purpose of the airport regulation is to ensure safe airspace use with drones. The first step is for other air traffic over the area to know that electric RPAS/drones with payloads up to a maximum of 150 kilograms can hover in our flying area that day.

The airport regulations have been finalized. We are now working on implementing the necessary airport protocols, registration procedures, and safety measures.