Idaho Agricultural Aviation Association
We fly Idaho’s crops.
Agriculture supports one in nine Idaho jobs. Aerial applicators help keep those crops healthy when nothing on the ground can reach them. This association tells their story and speaks for them in Boise.
The work
Why Idaho agriculture needs aircraft.
Agribusiness generates 17 percent of Idaho’s economic output. Protecting a crop is a race against weather, insects and disease, and part of that race can only be run from the air.
When the ground is too wet
After rain or irrigation a ground sprayer ruts the field and packs the soil. An aircraft treats the same field without touching it.
When the crop has closed in
By midsummer the rows are full. Driving through crushes plants. Flying over does not.
When there are only days to act
Disease and insects move fast. An aircraft covers several times the acres a ground sprayer can in a day.
- $44.5 billionin annual sales from Idaho agribusiness
- 17.2%of Idaho’s total economic output
- 1 in 9Idaho jobs
- No. 1in the nation for potatoes and barley
Sources: University of Idaho, Economic Contribution of Idaho Agribusiness 2025 (2024 data). Idaho State Department of Agriculture, 2026 Idaho Agriculture Facts.
Idaho’s ag pilots are commercial pilots, licensed by the Idaho State Department of Agriculture and flying GPS-guided aircraft under federal rules written for this work. Read the full story
The advocacy
What we have won for Idaho’s aerial applicators.
The association speaks for Idaho’s aerial applicators at the Legislature and before state and federal agencies. This is the record.
- 2024Idaho LegislatureSigned into law
False damage claims
House Bill 474 made it a misdemeanor to knowingly file a false pesticide damage claim. Idaho Code § 22-3417B.
- 2022Idaho LegislatureSigned into law
Right to Farm covers ag aircraft
House Bill 606 added the travel of agricultural aircraft to and from fields to the Right to Farm Act. Idaho Code § 22-4502.
- 2020Idaho LegislatureSigned into law
Sales tax parity for ag aircraft
House Bill 442 exempted agricultural aircraft and their repair parts from sales and use tax. Idaho Code § 63-3622GG.
Contact
Have a question about aerial application in Idaho?
Reporters, legislators, growers and neighbors can reach the association directly. Operators and pilots can join or renew.