C-DRONE GUIDE · 21 SEPTEMBER 2026
Puy green lentils and drones: mapping uneven ripening, price
In 1996, Lentille verte du Puy became the first vegetable in France ever to secure a protected designation of origin (AOC) — upgraded to a European protected designation of origin (AOP) in 2008. Grown by around 550 farmers across nearly 3,000 hectares spread over 87 communes on the volcanic plateau of Haute-Loire, the sector is going through one of its toughest seasons in twenty-five years in 2026: a cold spring lasting until Ascension Day, then a heat spike to 40 °C as early as May, then hailstorms across several parts of the growing basin brought average yield down to around 150 kg per hectare, against 700 to 800 kg in a normal year. On a crop with indeterminate growth, where ripening rarely stays uniform across a single field and where the harvest window is measured in days, aerial drone mapping usefully documents one thing: where, within a given field, ripening and vigour heterogeneity sit. Here is what it concretely brings, and what it cannot settle.
Published on 21 September 2026, reviewed on 21 September 2026 — regulations in force as of September 2026.
Lentille verte du Puy AOP: a volcanic-plateau sector under strain in 2026
Lentille verte du Puy made its mark on French gastronomic history as early as 1996: the first vegetable ever to secure a protected designation of origin (AOC), upgraded to a European protected designation of origin (AOP) in 2008. The production zone covers 87 communes on the volcanic plateau of Haute-Loire, around Le Puy-en-Velay, at an altitude of between 700 and 1,100 metres. The sector today brings together around 550 growers across nearly 3,000 hectares, under the responsibility of the Organisme de défense et de gestion (ODG) for Lentille Verte du Puy, chaired by Huguette Trescarte; three collectors-sorters-packers handle most of the volume, including Sabarot, a historic pulse company in Haute-Loire.
The 2026 season will stand as one of the toughest in twenty-five years. A particularly cold spring lasting until Ascension Day first delayed plot development, before a sudden temperature spike — peaks of 40 °C as early as May — disrupted flowering. Hail then struck several parts of the growing basin, notably around Chaspuzac, Saint-Paulien and Landos. According to one grower from Le Puy, around 70% of plots in the AOP zone were hit by the June heatwave: average yield collapsed to around 150 kg per hectare, against 700 to 800 kg in a normal year, and some plots simply will not be harvested, as volumes no longer cover the cost of the combine pass.
What ripeness mapping documents on a lentil field
Lentil is a plant with indeterminate growth: it keeps flowering and setting pods for as long as conditions allow, so that by the time harvest approaches, a single field carries both brown, ripe pods and still-green stems at once. Choosing the harvest date is correspondingly delicate: harvesting too early leaves damp seed and hurts quality, harvesting too late exposes the crop to pod shattering, lodging and seed cracking — defects that directly downgrade the batch at sorting. Weed control poses a separate challenge on this crop, which competes poorly against weeds; our guide on weed mapping by drone covers that issue in field crops.
A Canadian team led by Manoj Natarajan, Keshav D. Singh, Charles M. Geddes, Steve J. Shirtliffe, Prabahar Ravichandran and Hongquan Wang published a 2025 study in the Canadian Journal of Plant Science dealing directly with lentil (Lens culinaris): using trials run at Saskatoon and Lethbridge, a hyperspectral camera carried on a drone tracked, day by day after treatment, how plant moisture content evolved and how plants responded to different desiccant products, with prediction models explaining up to two-thirds of observed variance (see the study on Google Scholar). Applied at field scale, the same principle can map which zones are furthest along in ripening and which lag behind — a particularly useful reading in 2026, where the late cold spring followed by May's heat spike desynchronised development within a single field more than usual. Our guide comparing a multispectral camera against a standard RGB camera covers the sensors involved.
The honesty clause: a vigour map doesn't say which cause hit which zone
The honesty clause. An Italian team led by Jacopo Furlanetto, Nicola Dal Ferro, Matteo Longo, Luigi Sartori, Riccardo Polese, Daniele Caceffo, Lorenzo Nicoli and Francesco Morari published a 2023 study in Precision Agriculture building, from Sentinel-2 satellite imagery and drone flights, a leaf area index to quantify hail-caused defoliation on maize plots subjected to a gradient of simulated damage (see the study on Google Scholar). Angle explicitly broadened here: this study covers maize, not lentil — a very different plant architecture — which calls for a cautious transposition of the principle rather than a direct application. The principle nonetheless stands: a vegetation index calculated after a hail event reveals where foliage biomass loss is most pronounced.
But over a season like 2026, where a cold spring, a May-June heatwave and hailstorms followed one another within a few weeks across the same basin, a vigour map taken afterwards never says which cause struck which zone: a localised drop could equally reflect a passing hailstorm, a heat spike during flowering, or simply delayed development from the late cold spell — only a ground visit can settle between these hypotheses. Nor does such a map alone constitute the expert file needed for an insurance claim; our guide on agricultural damage assessment by drone after hail or storm covers the method and the documents that make up that file.
Who commissions this service, and 2026 prices
Demand comes from the ODG for Lentille Verte du Puy, the sector's cooperatives and collectors, the Haute-Loire chamber of agriculture and individual growers. The basin's airspace calls for a systematic check: Le Puy-en-Velay - Loudes aerodrome (ICAO code LFHP), sited across the communes of Loudes and Chaspuzac — one of the areas hit by the 2026 hail —, imposes its own approach rules. The Géoportail drone zone map remains the first reflex before any campaign; our regional guide on drone missions in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes covers the region's whole airspace picture.
Ranges observed in France in 2026, excluding VAT:
| Service | Observed price (excl. VAT) |
| Ripeness/vigour scouting flight, multispectral camera (up to 5 hectares) | €260 to €450 |
| Additional pass per extra 5 hectare block | €75 to €120 |
| Post-event mapping (hail, heatwave), locating affected zones | €280 to €480 |
| Combined monitoring (flowering flight + pre-harvest ripeness scouting) | €520 to €850 |
These figures cover the flight and delivery of a usable map within 24 to 48 hours; they do not include the agronomic diagnosis of an anomaly's cause, nor the insurance expert file. Since AOP-zone holdings are usually small, a campaign pooled by the ODG or a cooperative across several neighbouring plots noticeably reduces the cost per hectare. Request a quote stating the area, the number of plots and the period targeted: at the end of the cycle, a few days before the planned harvest, for ripeness scouting.