The National Agricultural Aviation Association and National Agricultural Aviation Research and Education Foundation’s boards and committees met last week in Montreal, Canada, holding meetings simultaneously with the annual convention of the Canadian Aerial Applicators Association (CAAA).
For decades, the CAAA has held their board meetings during NAAA’s annual convention. NAAA, in the spirit of cooperation with its neighborly, northern brethren decided to do the same.
NAAA State of the Industry/Association Report
Andrew Moore, NAAA CEO began with a rundown on the economics surrounding United States agriculture starting with USDA estimates that 2024 U.S. net farm income was $140 billion, down 6.8% from 2023. U.S. net farm income has been upwardly increasing from 2016-2022. On the positive side, USDA estimates 2025 U.S. net farm income to increase due to a staggering 345% increase in government payments from a recently enacted disaster relief bill (from $9.3 billion in 2024 to $42.4 billion in 2025). On another positive note he stated that according to a recent survey of U.S. farmers taken earlier this month from the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture, farmers’ sentiment about the agricultural economy is higher than it has been since May of 2021 due to a majority of ag producers surveyed believing they expect a lightening of restrictive environmental regulatory policy for agriculture in the upcoming five years, as well as more favorable tax policies following the recent election. Conversely, producers responding to the survey are worried about agricultural trade, with over two-fifths of survey respondents saying they think a ‘trade war’ is either likely or very likely.” Moreover, 56% of Farm Journal’s December 2024 survey of 70 leading ag economists believe an ag recession currently exists; 81% believe the U.S. is on the brink of one. One of the likely reasons, stated Moore, is based on U.S. agricultural trade data. USDA estimated U.S. 2024 ag exports decreased by $4.7 billion to $148.3 billion compared to 2023’s $153 billion. In addition, the $10.9 billion 2023 U.S. ag trade imbalance with all other nations (ag imports vs. ag exports) grew to $23.3 billion in 2024 and is forecast to be a $42.5 billion deficit this year. Experts attribute this to rising protectionism globally and an anemic attempt by the previous Biden administration to find new global ag markets.
Moore provided an overview of U.S. ag trade from President Trump’s first administration (Trump 1.0) to the present to try to predict the future direction of U.S. agricultural trade using China, the number one purchaser of U.S. ag exports (17%), as an example. In 2018, U.S. farmers were hit by China's retaliatory tariffs on U.S. ag exports to their country after President Trump implemented tariffs and trade barriers on the Chinese due to unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation ag exports from the U.S. to China decreased from $24 billion in 2014 to $9.1 billion in 2018. Trump, in an effort to aid U.S. farmers, directed USDA Commodity Credit Corporation payments to farmers harmed by the tariffs. At the eve of Trump’s second administration, the 2024 overall Chinese trade surplus with the U.S. totaled a whopping $992 billion. Trump recently enacted a 10% tariff on Chinese imports, and tariffs on key ally trade partners. China has retaliated with tariffs on U.S. coal and liquified natural gas and has raised the dispute with the World Trade Organization. Since Trump 1.0, China has since accessed alternative markets for ag products in the European Union and BRICS’ (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) nations. Today 24.85% of China’s ag imports come from Brazil ($58.6 billion vs. $33.75 billion of China’s U.S. ag imports). Fifty percent (50%) of Brazil’s total trade is with China. Furthermore, China is making long-term investments with BRICS nations. In 2023 alone it invested $380 billion into those four nations in the form of ports, railroads, and other key pieces of infrastructure, while U.S. foreign investment in the form of economic development, humanitarian and health aid, etc. totaled $65 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. Moore stated that President Trump is known for his bluster to fluster his negotiating opponents and for penning the “Art of the Deal,” emphasizing that he has an ability to bring parties to the negotiating table and strike hard bargains, yet the savvy of China’s power and investment and Brazil’s agricultural strength mustn’t be ignored.
Moore then shifted to government policy issues. He reiterated that NAAA’s most important issue continues to be ensuring the registration of pesticides for aerial use and that pesticide label language for aerial use is not unnecessarily burdensome. Every 15 years, according to federal law, every pesticide product registered in the U.S. must be reevaluated for safety by EPA before reregistration is approved. Since 2017 NAAA has commented on nearly 300 EPA pesticide reviews. According to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, there are over 800 pesticides registered for use in the U.S. NAAA uses a variety of means to ensure aerial use remains available including developing a comprehensive industry survey once or twice a decade about types of equipment used in the industry, acres treated per day per aircraft, etc. The real, actual data accumulated from the survey has been used to counter theoretical overestimations of risk made by EPA pertaining to the aerial application of pesticides. Before conducting a survey, a census of the industry is first needed to ensure all in the industry are reached followed by the actual survey. The census will occur in 2025 followed by the survey in 2026. The total cost of the project could reach as high as $200,000. Uncrewed aerial application system users (UAAS) will also be included in the survey. NAAA is also working on updating the computer coding of the AGDISP atmospheric drift model that EPA uses to determine movement of pesticides applied by air. With updated coding, more variables may be added to the model, such as how the use of certain technologies and meteorological conditions can mitigate drift that would further help in ensuring pesticides are available for aerial use. NAAA also works with pesticide manufacturers trying to ensure aerial applications are allowed on the labels of their products. NAAA has a full slate of these companies that have been or will be visited with to urge aerial labeling.
Moore also discussed two major regulatory successes after years of NAAA’s hard work. One was finally seeing the FAA release a proposed rule to mark and log the location of meteorological towers (MET) between 50 and 200 feet. NAAA submitted comments on the proposed rule stating that the agency should go further and require not just new and altered METs be logged and marked, but that existing METs must do both and that other non-MET towers, such as communication towers, must either be marked or logged as called for by the statute that NAAA advocated Congress to enact.
The other rule that NAAA advocated be promulgated was the release of a proposal by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration allowing states to exempt Class A CDL drivers from obtaining a HazMat endorsement if they are transporting 1,000 gallons of Jet A or less. NAAA submitted comments supporting both these proposals and urged those in the industry to do the same.
Moore touched on the status of the FAA’s intention to allow drones to fly beyond visual line of site (BVLOS) of its operator. The rule was scheduled for release late last year, however, due to the new administration and recent drone incidents, that proposed rule appears delayed. Incidents include events last November of widespread reports of unexplained drone sightings over New Jersey, including over President Trump’s National Golf Club in Bedminster and the U.S. Army Picatinny Arsenal. The FAA issued temporary flight restrictions over more than 50 towns in the state. Then, in December, during a Florida drone light show, multiple drones lost control in flight, descending uncontrollably, resulting in one child being hit and seriously injured. Then, to start the year, a major global drone manufacturer announced that it would no longer geofence its drones from entering restricted areas. Coinciding with this, a civilian drone collided with a CL-415 firefighting aircraft fighting the Palisades Fire in California resulting in the specially designed firefighting plane sustaining wing damage and grounding the aircraft.
Moore then spoke about education and safety programs and gave an overview of the content of the 2025-2026 season of PAASS—the 28th year of the program strengthening the industry’s safety, security, and stewardship. The aviation safety portion of the program will focus on ways to ensure one’s mental health is taken care of before climbing into the cockpit. This will be based upon former military pilot Kevin Humphreys’ (2024 Ag Aviation Expo speaker) observations. Understanding the aircraft’s weight and balance and center of gravity will also be discussed to optimize the aircraft’s safety and performance. The environmental professionalism segment will focus on nozzle maintenance and alignment and an update on EPA endangered species policies will be provided. C-PAASS 2025, the industry professional certification program, was also discussed. Added to the curriculum for this year are online courses on the impact of each applied droplet—a continuation of last year’s course—and inadvertent entry into instrument meteorological conditions. Moore also stated that future video programming that will be added to the education center section of the website will include the topics of security, stall spin avoidance, and application systems setup.
He also stated that accident numbers continue to improve in the industry based upon educational programs, such as PAASS. For example, results were recently released from the FAA’s General Aviation Activity Survey from 2023 which shows that 1,108,645 ag hours were flown that year—the most ag hours flown since 2017. There were 5.41 ag aviation accidents per 100,000 hours flown that year—the lowest on record. The cumulative accident rate per 100,000 hours flown went from 7.10 to 7.01 since the PAASS program hit the state in 1999. This is a 1.3% cumulative drop between 1999-2022 and 1999-2023. The rate prior to PAASS (1993-1998) was 9.64 accidents per 100,000 hours flown. This is a 27.32% decrease in accidents since PAASS (a 5.2% decrease in fatal accidents). Drift claims have decreased by nearly 26% since PAASS.
Moore then shifted gears to NAAA’s convention, also known as the Ag Aviation Expo. The Fort Worth convention last year was a great success resulting in $808,090 in revenue. The most since 2013. There were 1,812 attendees at the convention. The most since the late 1990s. Preparation is already underway for the 2025 Ag Aviation Expo in Reno, Nevada, this November. Ray Starling, former agriculture advisor to the White House during the first Trump administration and chief of staff to former secretary of the USDA, Sonny Perdue, will provide an insider’s view to the happenings of the Trump administration and an inside perspective of the policy debate that goes on between environmental and food activists and those that actual produce the food: farmers. Starling detailed this interaction in his terrific 2022 book “Farmers Versus Foodies.” The general session plans on highlighting an ag economist to speak on economic trends occurring in U.S. ag and forecasting the health of the industry in the out years. The wire safety course will also be offered at the convention.
Future Ag Aviation Expos will take place in 2026 in Savannah, Georgia, followed by Oklahoma City in 2027 and back in Reno, Nevada for 2028.
Membership was the next topic addressed and the overall numbers for 2024 were good with 1,847 total members. Operator member numbers were lower at 530 compared to 541 in 2023. There were 573 NAAA operator members in 2022. However, total members in 2024 were at their highest since 2018. So far in 2025, memberships are lower than they were last year as of the end of January 2025 with 385 operators, 317 pilots, and 1,102 total memberships, compared to 418 operators, 308 pilots, and 1,142 total memberships as of the end of January 2024. According to NAAA numbers there are 1,560 aerial application operations in the U.S. and 2,028 non-operator ag pilots.
Moore then presented the draft budget for fiscal year 2025-2026 that was developed by staff and officers last month. In developing the budget, expenses were overestimated and revenues underestimated, such as membership, due to suspected operator consolidation. The budget also includes a $43,000 depreciation line item and a $60,000 expense for credit cards that the association is charged for members’ use of credit cards. With all these factors, the budget is expected to have a $208,720 deficit. He did go on to explain that historically, conservative proposed budgets projecting deficits never come to fruition. Over the past 12 years, deficits have been projected 10 times, but only occurred four times. Moore also mentioned that reserves are strong and that perhaps the new NAAA health care plan and C-PAASS professional certification program may help the association once the industry becomes better aware of them. To date, one person has signed up for the health care plan, but there are 32 leads. C-PAASS ended the year with 25 professionally certified aerial applicators. There were 38 in 2023, its first year, and two so far in 2025.
Committee Reports:
Allied/Convention Committee: Details of the Reno, Nevada 2025 Ag Aviation Expo were discussed which will occur November 17-19, 2025, at the Atlantis Hotel and connecting convention center. Large booth space is on sale and smaller sized booth sales will be available for purchase on July 10, 2025. For more information visit: https://www.agaviation.org/ag-aviation-expo/.
Communications Committee: It was reported that the NAAA magazine’s (Agricultural Aviation) digital application has over 5,600 viewers. Appreciation was given by the committee to AgAir Update for providing article space to NAAA in each edition. Also, reported was that the last year NAAA will likely have a printed membership directory will be 2026. As a substitute, the online membership directory is available on the website, in addition to a proposed NAAA membership App for mobile phones and tablets. NAAA will create a one pager with a QR code that refers people to the About page on the NAAA website that members can use at their local ag shows. NAAA may also see an increase in the number of sponsors of its scholarship programs due to interest by allied groups wanting to expand their availability. NAAA will also post Allied member scholarship opportunities for the industry on its website.
Government Relations Committee: The importance of updating the AGDISP atmospheric drift predicting model’s computer coding was discussed, emphasizing that today’s current pesticide labels are based on worst case scenarios to human health and the environment; however, a sophisticated model with the latest computer code will be able to allow for many more risk-mitigating variables to be considered, in addition to the actual geographical and meteorological conditions in the target field. As such, it could allow for much more flexibility for applicators if application conditions are good and drift reduction technologies are modeled and used at the application site.
Emphasis was placed on keeping the USDA-ARS Aerial Application Technology Unit funded due to the great benefits that it provides the industry, for example, the study on environmental benefits of aerial application amongst many other programs. The program lost two scientists recently due to the government offering early retirement to some employees. Those positions aren’t likely to be filled until next year at the earliest.
It was also emphasized that any ADS-B requirement for aircraft be tied to anonymity of that aircraft to stay clear of frivolous claims of wrongdoing.
Insurance Committee: More effort was emphasized on the C-PAASS professional aerial applicator certification program and how it could influence insurance rates positively. The committee emphasized that those who are C-PAASS certified should inform their insurance companies about their certification. It was also stated that the use of new chemical tracing technology could result in insurance benefits to those that use them regularly as the absence of a tracer from residues found in a drift claim may exonerate an applicator that uses them.
Museum Committee: It was reported that the Snow S-2 aircraft is on the floor of the National Agricultural Aviation Museum and Hall of Fame and is in great shape. Air Tractor plans to have a digital kiosk placed next to the aircraft that will include details about the aircraft and video of it making applications.
The Last Pass Memorial Walkway, a path of bricks leading to the museum engraved with those fallen in the service of making aerial applications, will be completed by the fall. To date, 498 fatal incidents have been researched using NTSB and other sources. All but ten of these fatal incidents date from 1982 to the present. Three hundred of those have an individual’s name associated with the incident. To submit a name of an ag pilot fallen in service go to: https://lastpassmemorialwalk.org/name-submission/. To make a donation visit: https://www.msagmuseumfoundation.org/naam-donation and make sure “Last Past Memorial Walkway” is chosen in the drop-down menu.
Precision Agriculture Committee: It was discussed that EPA plans to make the application program interface for its endangered species maps available to third parties, such as flight-planning, work-order and GPS software manufacturers so they can incorporate it into their digital products. It was also reported that Satloc is working to incorporate meteorologic measurement technology into its GPS system. It was also stated that the Capstan spray system is working on technology that will automatically adjust its system to near perfection after receiving data results from the aircraft flying over strings/water sensitive cards, if such adjustments are necessary.
Support Committee: The support committee discussed that its scholarship topic will be the advantages and disadvantages of ADS-B technology. For more information visit: https://www.agaviation.org/career/scholarships/support-scholarship-media-contest/.
Uncrewed Aerial Application Systems Committee: An AGDISP modernization project was discussed in length, particularly with pesticide manufacturers on the committee, to see if resources might be forthcoming to aid in completing the recoding. It was also mentioned that another drone application organization was formed known as the American Spray Drone Coalition. Its current objective is advocating against the Countering CCP (Chinese Communist Party) Drones Act, seeking to ensure access to affordable, quality UAAS as the industry navigates toward a more U.S.-manufactured or U.S.-ally-manufactured UAAS. An ad hoc committee, part of the full UAAS committee is currently working on communication pieces designed to ensure drone users are aware of licensing and regulatory requirements and the legal and potentially criminal liability that one ignoring such requirements might face.
Budget & Finance and Membership Committee: The NAAA Board approved its budget for fiscal year 2025-2026 with expenses totaling $3,066,426 and a projected deficit of $208,720. Due to imperative and expensive projects underway by the association, such as the industry census and survey and recoding of the AGDISP atmospheric drift model, totaling over $700,000 to complete and both crucial to registering pesticides for aerial use, the NAAA Board also agreed to raise pilot member dues to $350 and other membership category dues by 8% to finance these projects
