Trends of unmanned aerial vehicles in smart farming: a bibliometric analysis

Abstract

This paper presents a review of the trends of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in agriculture using a bibliometric analysis. This bibliometric analysis shows that 1676 articles were accessed from the Elsevier Scopus database between 2013 and 2023. Our findings indicate research related to UAVs in agriculture has surged over the years, but the adoption and acceptance of smart farming technology in sub-Saharan Africa remains inert. This study employed VosViewer in data analysis and bibliometrics. Our findings show that China leads all countries and followed by the United States on UAV publications in smart farming research foci. Our findings indicate that UAVs are impactful in improving crop growth, crop health monitoring, and may be beneficial to small-holder farmers with increased yields. We recommend that sub-Saharan Africa nations accelerate collaboration with China and United States in advancing climate smart agriculture practices to mitigate food insecurity risks.