Drones may soon be joining the armoury of weapons used to scare birds away from ripening grapes  after a trial undertaken in Hawke's Bay last season.

Drones’ (UAV) rising popularity has pointed to an inevitable tightening of the rules for their use as they evolve from remote control helicopters to sophisticated work platforms – especially in farming.

Farmers are among the fastest business people seeing the advantages of UAV technology, says Warren Eade of GeoSystems NZ. (UAV stands for unmanned aerial vehicle, or ‘drone’).

It started off as a project to spray rice in Japan, now it could provide a solution to spot spraying noxious weeds on seemingly inaccessible places on New Zealand farms.