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.

本文从经验上详细研究了欧洲第一个自动批准使用农药的授权无人机系统的开发和商业化所产生的空气污染实践，期望和假想，该系统已开发并出售，并由一家瑞士初创公司进行了试点公司。喷雾无人机以新颖，固有功能化和商业化的方式使空气与农业实践和过程相关，这是本文的基本论点。因此，空中领域正成为务实的联盟和竞争的对象，这取决于所涉利益相关者的议程和组织结构。这就引起了对围绕用于农业和企业家目的的空气日益仪器化的问题的批判性讨论，