How agtech startups like Guardian Aerial are reshaping Louisiana farming

A new generation of startups is reshaping one of Louisiana’s biggest legacy industries: agriculture.

From rice fields in Acadia Parish to sugarcane stretches along the Mississippi River, farming is both a cultural identity and a financial engine. But as climate volatility intensifies and labor shortages squeeze growers, agricultural technology (agtech) is taking off to help farms adapt to modern challenges.

The goal is to produce more with less while reducing environmental harm and workplace hazards. One startup at the center of that shift is Woodworth-based Guardian Aerial, a young drone-based precision agriculture company translating Silicon Valley-style innovation into boots-on-the-ground farm operations. 

The company employs six people who operate a fleet of 10 12-foot agricultural drones, spraying crops across Louisiana with data-guided accuracy. 

“By providing farmers with a drone, you avoid the risk of human life surrounding an airplane crash or a chemical spill,” said Clinton Giglio, a former military helicopter pilot who founded Guardian Aerial in 2024. “You’re reducing risk by using ten gallons instead of 800. Although you can’t cover the same acreage logistically, it’s a different process and it’s worth it.”

That difference is central to precision agriculture, a rapidly expanding undertaking that uses data to make farming more systematic and sustainable. Rather than blanket-spraying entire fields with fertilizer or pesticides, precision farming allows growers to apply exactly where it’s needed and only where it’s needed.

Sugarcane crops, which generate around $3 billion annually in Louisiana, have been at the forefront of this evolution. By applying ripener through sprayer drones, Guardian Aerial aims to accelerate the maturation process more effectively. 

“Sprayer airplanes can apply ripener too hard,” said Louisiana State University (LSU) AgCenter assistant professor Randy Price, who has tested Giglio’s drones. “Sugarcane does not need as much. Sometimes they’re only 40 acres or smaller fields with trees around them, so the sprayer drones get the ripener down in the cane more accurately.”

Beyond spraying, drone platforms can gather high-resolution imagery of fields using specialty cameras and sensors. That data can reveal crop stress, irrigation issues, pest infestations and nutrient deficiencies before they’re visible to the naked eye. 

Advanced agtech tools range from drones to GPS mapping and satellite imagery. When paired with machine learning analytics, the information becomes actionable intel, allowing growers to intervene before yields suffer. 

“There’s a lot of skepticism of whether the drone is capable,” Giglio said. “The drone is absolutely capable. We now have proof.”

Tech is now part of the job, not just an add-on

For Louisiana, the stakes are high. The state’s diverse agricultural landscape faces increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, from hurricanes to prolonged flooding. Labor shortages add more urgency. Like much of the country, Louisiana has seen its agricultural workforce shrink. 

Automation and robotics are becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity. Drone spraying, while not a complete replacement for traditional methods, can reduce reliance on large ground crews or crop-dusting planes.

“Agricultural technology and precision farming [are] better economically for farmers, cleaner for the environment and help to fertilize or seed exactly where it’s needed and can show you bad spots like we never could before,” said Gary Cross, agricultural program lead at the University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM).

Universities, economic development agencies and startups are increasingly aligned around modernizing the state’s agricultural backbone. Louisiana Economic Development has identified it as a $13 billion annual growth sector, betting that innovation in the field can drive both job creation and investment.

Plus, the state’s agtech startups are starting to garner more attention on a national stage.

Baton Rouge-based FarmMind, founded by LSU alumni and students, recently won the $100,000 American Farm Bureau Federation’s Ag Innovation Challenge for its AI-powered process management platform. 

Heritage, talent and an appetite for innovation

Guardian Aerial plans to expand into spraying and inspection services for industrial facilities, water towers and other hard-to-reach structures in 2026. 

“We want to continue growth and expansion, capturing our market and creating a regional brand,” founder Giglio said.

As agtech matures, startups like his are testing whether Louisiana can lead in a sector often associated with larger coastal tech hubs. The ingredients to flourish are there. A deep agricultural heritage, research institutions producing talent and an appetite for innovation among farmers navigating modern challenges all fit the bill.

Precision agriculture is not about replacing farmers with machines. It’s about equipping them with better information. In a state where farming has shaped communities for generations, that evolution may prove essential to sustaining the next one. 

Farming is no longer just tractors, overalls and sickles. Instead, it’s sensors, software and airspace. 

“Together, all these tools are revolutionizing our way of being more cost-effective, more environmentally conscious and creating better stewards of farming as a whole,” said Cross, the ULM ag program lead. “It’s creating a new vision for what is possible.”