Lawmakers want US to address risks posed by Chinese agriculture drones

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A dozen U.S. lawmakers on Friday urged the Biden administration to address the use of Chinese manufactured agriculture drones, saying their use on American farms poses national security risks.

The House Republicans, including Representatives Elise Stefanik, Ashley Hinson and John Moolenaar, who chairs a select committee on China, asked the U.S. Agriculture Department and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in letters seen by Reuters to detail the administration's efforts to address risks posed by aerosol-dispensing drones.

The lawmakers asked for a briefing by Sept. 30 and cited the large number of drones produced by Chinese drone manufacturer DJI as a security concern.

DJI, the Chinese Embassy in Washington and the agencies did not immediately comment. DJI said previously it strictly follows applicable data privacy protection laws and gives drone users "full control over the data they generate."

The letter cited the fact that the U.S. Commerce Department has imposed export restrictions on “aerosol dispensing” drones that have potential to be used as weapons delivery platforms.

"The risk of these DJI agricultural spray drones being manipulated to carry out an attack in the United States cannot be ignored," the letter said. "Relying on our greatest strategic adversary for technology critical to the success of our agricultural production endangers the resiliency of our food supply."

Stefanik called on the USDA and the cybersecurity agency to "take immediate action to mitigate the risks of Chinese-manufactured drones to our agriculture industry." She has proposed legislation seeking to bar new DJI drones from operating within the United States.

The letter noted DJI agriculture drones use advanced sensors that can collect and interpret crop data that is "impossible for the human eye to see" and argued that could be used by China "to gain access into granular level detail on the stability and condition of the U.S. agriculture sector."

In 2020, the U.S government imposed export restrictions on DJI. Lawmakers have said DJI accounts for more than 50% of all U.S. drone purchases.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Jonathan Oatis)