The Indian government has introduced a new Agri drones policy on July 15, 2021, replacing the Unmanned Aircraft System Rules 2021 that was released on March 12, 2021. Under the new guidelines, coverage of drones under Drone Rules 2021 has been increased from 300 kg to 500 kg which is beneficial for farmers as the payload can now be substantially increased cutting down their total cost. They also have to get a unique identification number with operators to provide details of the same on the digital sky platform.
India ranks first in terms of agriculture and the industry covers half the country’s employment population. India has more than 150 million of arable land and generates more than 15 lakh crore of revenue making farming the 18% contributor towards the country’s GDP. Even with this progress, India has been unable to give a fair income to farmers. According to a report by a National Sample Survey Organisation in 2003, just about 10 per cent of our farmers had accessed any institutional source of extension to learn about new agricultural technologies in one year.
Agri Drone is one such technology that can help bring change in long term farming. Countries like China, Japan, US, Brazil have adopted this technology and even India can adapt to this new technology. The technology can help farmers in India to improve the crop quality by reducing the extra cost. Farmers can also maximise use of water, pesticides, fertilisers and improve their productivity too.
According to a report titled ‘Use of Drones in Agriculture: Potentials, Problems and Policy Needs’ by ICAR-NIASM, there are forty drone start-ups engaged to improve drone technology and simultaneously decrease the drone’s prices to make it affordable for farmers. The report also stated that, the Maharashtra government has signed a MoU with the World Economic Forum (WEF) Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution to explore the possibilities of using drones for several government initiatives. Even farmers of Dahanu-Palghar tribal villages in Maharashtra use drones for organic farming, fish farming, crop rotation, bio-control, hydroponics, bio waste management, besides also using drone-based technologies on their orchards and farms.
However the center has issued mandatory guidelines to the International Crops Research Institute (ICRISAT), to use drones for agricultural research activities which will result in increasing the number of villages adopting drones as a part of their daily lives.
Benefits of Agri drones
- Crop Monitoring: Farmers can monitor the crops and can do surveillance of their crops according to their convenience.
- Crop Protection: With the help of drones, crops can be protected too. Use of pesticides with the right quantity and at the right time can improve the crop quantity and quality, preventing wastage and maximising the output.
- The most important process of farming, Crop Plantation can also be carried out with the help of Agri Drones; the manual work of planting the trees or crops can now be carried out by drones helping in reduction of the labour, cost and fuel. It can also eliminate the use of tractors globally which can help in prevention of the environment. Farmers keep animals as livestock in large numbers.
- The process of Managing Livestocks can now be done easily with the help of drones; farmers can monitor their livestock as the drones have sensors and cameras. Predators can be seen before an attack and even a sick animal can be identified and rescued quickly.
- Locust Control: Swarms of locusts destroy crops resulting in financial disaster for farmers and the economy too at large. With the use of drones, these locusts can be eliminated by spraying insecticides over them without harming the crops and livestock too.
- Water management is the most important issue tackled by drones. Better water management helps farmers grow their produce even more effectively. Efficient water management is possible using drones as it uses ultra-low volume spraying technology compared to the traditional ways.
It must be noted that Drones do have certain limitations. Not everyone can manage a drone. A trained drone operator is required for managing drones.
