Impact of COVID-19 on current agricultural robot market size and forecast

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, a deadly respiratory disease that originated in China, is now become a worldwide issue and has also affected the agricultural robots market. Most types of agricultural robots have been affected by this crisis, which is expected to be a short term impact. For instance, during the Q1 2020 conference call, the CFO of Trimble (US) announced that its OEM hardware business, which collectively makes up less than 15% of revenue have been significantly impacted by the shutdown of its customer’s production facilities. John Deere (US) announced in its Q2 2020 results that revenues decreased 18% and 13% three and six months respectively in 2020 compared to that in 2019. The company’s Agriculture & Turf segment (which caters to the agricultural robots market) had a decrease in revenues of 18%.

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The COVID-19 pandemic will have a varying impact on different agricultural robots. The market for the milking robots is expected to be the most affected as supply chain disruptions cause a greater effect on dairy products due to their perishable nature. On the other hand, the market for UAVs and automated harvesting systems will not be affected as much as milking robots. However, most agricultural robots will continue to experience high growth as farmers will look to reduce their dependency on manual labor and embrace automation to a greater degree. Hence, the overall market for agricultural robots is expected to pick up from 2021 onwards.

The UAVs or drones segment is estimated to hold the largest share of the agricultural robots market in 2020.

The UAVs or drones segment is estimated to hold the largest share of the agricultural robots market in 2020. The growth of this segment can be attributed to the fact that UAVs or drones are inexpensive agricultural robots, which can be used in farms of different sizes, especially in fields smaller than 50 hectares. Their affordability has led farmers to adopt UAVs or drones for modern farming. UAVs or drones are used for soil and crop field analysis and livestock management for the past several years. Their robust models are continuously being introduced in the market for pesticide spraying (such as the AGRAS T16 drone from DJI). The wide range of applications of UAVs or drones has led to their increased adoption by farmers and commercial growers.

Based on offering, the services segment of the agricultural robots market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

The services segment of the agricultural robots market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2019 to 2024. The high costs of agricultural equipment such as driverless tractors, fruit harvesters, and weeding robots have pushed companies to adopt a leasing model (such as Naïo Technologies) to enable farmers to field test robotic equipment to decide if they are a right fit to cater to their requirements. Service offerings such as return on investment (ROI) calculations and initial setup advice are also expected to be an important factor in the penetration of agricultural robots worldwide, especially with the introduction of new agricultural robots and other equipment.

The outdoor farming segment to hold a larger share of the market as compared to the indoor farming segment during the forecast period.

The variety and the number of farm equipment used in outdoor farming are more than that of indoor farming. UAVs or drones and autonomous tractors equipped with GPS are used for outdoor farming. Indoor robots such as milking robots, plant handling robots, and fruit harvesting robots make up for a smaller share of the market as compared to outdoor robots as a large portion of farming is still conducted outdoors. Thus, most of the agricultural robots being developed are meant for outdoor agricultural use.

The field crops segment of the agricultural robots market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2020 to 2025.

The field crops segment of the agricultural robots market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The penetration of auto-steering systems and autonomous robots is expected to contribute toward the growth of this segment of the market. Most of the drone surveying applications are focused on corn and sugarcane fields that make for a significant portion of agricultural produce globally. Automated harvesters are mostly used in field crops.