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The collaboration will be used in asparagus and winegrowing

Huawei and Dronetech, Austria’s largest drone service provider announce new applications resulting from their collaboration in 5G smart farming.

The two companies provided an update on their pioneer project that started last year, and introduced how their 5G and IoT technologies can advance sustainability in agriculture. They also hosted a panel made up of digitalisation and agriculture experts discussing how technology innovation, and 5G particularly, can promote sustainable farming amid rising global concerns for food security.

The two companies announce that their collaboration is entering the second phase called “Digital Sky”, where Huawei will provide cloud computing services on top of 5G and Dronetech’s drones will survey the land and objects to capture images. 

“The project of Huawei and Dronetech with drone use in asparagus and winegrowing is the first in Austria and here we want to analyse plant growth with real-time image recognition. By doing so, we want to improve the harvest, the output and the quality of the products,” said Andreas Reichhardt, Director-General of Directorate-General VI – Telecommunications, Postal Services and Mining at the Austrian Ministry of Finance. 

The collaboration will be used in asparagus

Leading agricultural drone manufacturer IoTechWorld Avigation Private Limited has revealed that it is aiming a multi-fold growth in both values and volume terms in the current fiscal. The Gurugram-headquartered company is targeting to sell more than 1,000 kisan drones during 2022-23 and is eyeing to capture a good share in the market, estimated to be Rs 5000 crore by 2025-26. 

To fund its growth, India’s first type certified drone manufacturer is in advanced talks with investors to raise funds, which will be utilised for expansion. Last year, the company raised around Rs 30 crore from leading agrochemical company Dhanuka Agritech. The company has also been selected for the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Drone & Drone components by the government of India.

According to Deepak Bhardwaj and Anoop Upadhyay, Co-founders, IoTechWorld Avigation, the company is working to make all components indigenous within one to two years and is also developing village level entrepreneurs and service partners to increase employment.  “Clearly, the growth opportunity is humungous and IoTechWorld Avigation is likely to gain major share of the kisan drone market,” the founders added.

So far, the company has conducted many campaigns and drone yatra of 15000 km across India for educating farmers on the benefits of using drones in agriculture. It has centres in 12 states and will open a Remote Pilot Training Organisation (RPTO) with different state governments to offer low-cost pilot license course.

“IoTechWorld Avigation has launched a bike back drone model and new Lithium Ion batteries to reduce the cost of operating and increase the mobility of drones. ICAR, KVKs, state agri universities have procured drones from us and now we are enabling them so that they can give demonstration and can educate the local farmers,” said Bhardwaj and Upadhyay.

“Our company is working with almost all major plant protection chemical manufacturing companies and working to increase the bio-efficacy of all plant protection chemicals. We are also empanelled with various state governments like Madhya Pradesh,” they added.

As per a recent report by FICCI–EY, the drone market is likely to become $30 billion by 2030 and agriculture drone market is estimated to contribute around 30 per cent of the overall market share.

Leading agricultural drone manufacturer IoTechWorld Avigation Private

XAG’s drone technology steps into Ecuador’s cacao gardens to spray timely after rains, protecting cacao fruit from yield loss with trustworthy effect

To facilitate sustainable, local cacao production, XAG agricultural drone is adopted by cacao growers in Ecuador and provides relief to labour shortage during the busy season.

XAG’s drone technology steps into Ecuador’s cacao gardens to spray timely after rains, protecting cacao fruit from yield loss with trustworthy effect. Ecuador is the top spot of high-quality cacao beans, the major ingredient of single-origin chocolates.

XAG’s local partner, Megadrone, dispatched an agricultural service team to manage a 180-hectare cacao farm in Guayaquil, the second largest city of Ecuador. Drone was used as an alternative spraying tool to cope with the increasing labour costs.

During the operation, the XAG P Series Agricultural Drone was equipped with a full tank of foliar fertilisers and fungicides. It took off from the slope and flew over clusters of bushes to precisely spray on the cacao trees.

“What’s more, XAG’s agricultural drone can be easily operated by most people. Before launching the drone, the pilot just plans the flight path and sets up parameters on mobile app. This is convenient to learn even for our elderly workers,” said by the farm owner.

XAG's drone technology steps into Ecuador's cacao gardens to

Collaborations between innovators and agrochemical companies would play an imminent role in flattening the learning curve

ThinkAg along with CropLife India, the leading voice of the plant science industry in India have organised an Industry Round table “AgLab” – Connecting innovators with corporates – Drone Applications in Agriculture & Crop Protection – bringing together all stakeholders of the Agriculture Drone ecosystem with a ‘focused platform for partnerships’ for the start-ups and stressed on the need of fast tracking and large-scale adoption of drone technology for agrochemical spraying in the country. 

Shomita Biswas, Joint Secretary (M&T), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India said, “It is time to make drones accessible for farmers. There are 200+ start-ups, engaged in manufacturing and providing drone services in agriculture, who would play a pivotal role. Empanelling with the State Governments and becoming custom hiring centres themselves; are the critical next steps for start-ups. 

The Government of India has added another intervention of involving the rural youth. Just with Bachelor in Science – agriculture degree, he/she can open a custom hiring centre, own a drone, and be an entrepreneur; employing others. Youth will be the ambassadors of Drone technology and hence we must leverage this segment. Start-ups in this sector can engage with the youth and other partners at village level and helping the growth of agricultural economy.

AsitavaSen, Chief Executive Officer, CropLife India, anchored the webinar shared, “CropLife India is committed to help develop a conducive ecosystem and quick adoption of Kisan Drones in India. Collaborations between innovators and agrochemical companies would play an imminent role in flattening the learning curve.” Sen added, “The purpose of the webinar is to offer a ‘focused and neutral platform for partnerships’ between the start-ups and Agrochemical/Agriculture input companies for knowledge sharing. Partnerships amongst stakeholders is critical to overcome the challenges and leverage the opportunities that this new technology offers.” 

Collaborations between innovators and agrochemical companies would

Cambodian farmers have rapidly expanded their planting areas and started applying XAG’s agricultural drones for productivity boom

XAG has recently introduced drone technology in Cambodia’s cassava cultivations to help small-scale farmers earn better yield while bringing down the costs of farm input. Cassava is the most important agro-industrial crop in Cambodia that provides employment and livelihood to thousands of rural workers. XAG delivers new energy to this sector with its agricultural drones that can use less water and chemical and ease the workload on farm. 

To meet the growing demand of cassava-based products including food, flour, paper and alcohol, Cambodian farmers have rapidly expanded their planting areas and started applying XAG’s agricultural drones for productivity boom.

Chhay Thi is an early adopter of spray drone who owns 20 hectares of land in Varin District, Siem Reap Province of Cambodia. This May, he ordered services from XAG local partner Red Sparrow Cambodia and had the XAG Agricultural Drone to demonstrate autonomous weeding on his 10-hectare cassava field.

“If I have an XAG drone in busy seasons to help me with crop protection, I can save $8-10 per hectare that is formerly spent on manual spraying. Drone operation also reduces the use of chemical by 10-30 per cent, so the resources and money saved can be reallocated to the other crop cultivation,” said Chhay Thi who witnessed the whole process of drone spraying demonstration.

Cambodian farmers have rapidly expanded their planting

The ADAMA Eagle Eye enables the collection of highly accurate data layers of crop fields to optimise the management of field trials and demo plots

ADAMA has recently introduced ADAMA Eagle Eye, a drone analytics farming platform, in partnership with Agremo, a leading aerial analytics provider.

The ADAMA Eagle Eye enables the collection of highly accurate data layers of crop fields to optimise the management of field trials and demo plots. It is a digital platform that uses AI to perform analytics from drone imagery, allowing ADAMA agronomists and experts to virtually visit the field, collect 3-D images, crop health data and document the progress of our field trials. This knowledge allows ADAMA’s product development and marketing teams to provide better accessibility to crop information for industry professionals and growers across the world.

ADAMA Eagle Eye analysis reports take the guesswork out of crop progress and significantly help the ADAMA team and growers to better understand what is going on in their fields. The software extracts critical information on plant populations, weeds, stress, pests, disease, drought, field arable area, and more, from a drone map to provide field and crop reports. The additional data layer helps ADAMA to make smarter decisions about pipeline projects, providing vital insights using visual data points. In addition, the report helps to provide more focused discussions with growers to deliver optimal solutions.

The ADAMA Eagle Eye enables the collection

Adani Defence & Aerospace has acquired strategic stake in digital led leading agri-drone solution provider General Aeronautics

Adani Defence & Aerospace has entered into definitive agreements for acquiring 50 per cent equity stake in agricultural drone start up – General Aeronautics. 
 General Aeronautics, a Bangalore based start-up specialises in developing robotic drones to offer tech enabled crop protection services, crop health monitoring, precision farming and yield monitoring using artificial intelligence and data analytics while working very closely with the farmers and agricultural chemical companies. General Aeronautics also has the presence of some reputed venture capital firms like Mela Ventures, founded by former Mindtree founders.

“The cross-industry application of drones is nearly limitless and continues to make great strides. It offers countries like ours the opportunity to leapfrog generations of infrastructure, healthcare, logistics, agriculture and defence advancements and break several process barriers. When combined with next generation imaging technologies, longer battery life, edge based artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, the possibilities are endless. The partnership between General Aeronautics and Adani Defence & Aerospace fuses our military and civilian objectives by integrating several capabilities Adani Group’s military UAV capabilities with the capabilities of General Aeronautics thereby providing us with a platform with far reaching possibilities” said Ashish Rajvanshi, CEO of Adani Defence & Aerospace.

The acquisition aligns to the objectives of Adani Defence & Aerospace in providing a platform to startups and MSMEs for rapid growth and scalability of innovative technologies.

Adani Defence & Aerospace has acquired strategic

Interacts with Kisan drone pilots

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently inaugurated India’s biggest Drone Festival – Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022. He also interacted with Kisan drone pilots, witnessed open-air drone demonstrations and interacted with startups in the drone exhibition centre. The Prime Minister also gave away 150 drone pilot certificates.

Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister conveyed his fascination and interest in the drone sector and said that he was deeply impressed by the drone exhibition and the spirit of the entrepreneurs and innovation in the sector. The Prime Minister also talked about his interaction with farmers and young engineers. He said that the energy and enthusiasm in the drone sector are visible and indicate India’s strength and desire to leapfrog into a leading position.

The Prime Minister cited PM Swamitva Yojana as an example of how drone technology is becoming the basis of a revolution. Under this scheme, for the first time, every property in villages is being digitally mapped and digital property cards are being given to the people.

The Prime Minister highlighted the importance of drone technology in the fields of defence, disaster management, agriculture, tourism, film and entertainment.

The Prime Minister also said that measures taken to help agriculture sectors have ensured that technology is no longer intimidating for the farmers.

Interacts with Kisan drone pilotsPrime Minister Narendra

Drone technology is all the rage right now because of its numerous applications, and future possibilities in farming. Initially, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were used by the military, but other industries quickly leveraged the wide range of applications for UAVs. Drones encourage farmers to overcome a wide range of obstacles and reap numerous benefits from precision farming in addition to enhancing overall performance. Human error and inefficiency in traditional farming methods leave a $1.3 billion market void that UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) can fill. Let’s explore further

Drone technology is being used to eliminate any ambiguity or guesswork and instead focus on accurate and reliable information. Young budding entrepreneurs in India’s agro sector have been enticed by the recent trends of using drones to improve overall farming operations. Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana – Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied Sectors Rejuvenation (RKVY-RAFTAAR) is a groundbreaking initiative from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA&FW) to further support these startups. It aims to improve agricultural and allied sector infrastructure to encourage agribusiness and agripreneurship by facilitating financial aid and cultivating a business incubator system.

Elaborating further on the benefits of these flying machines, Devan Chandrasekharan, Founder and Managing Director, Fuselage Innovations said, “We at Fuselage Innovations address the need to increase the efficiency and sustainability of the farming business by deploying the most advanced solution for mapping and diagnostics of farmland through dedicated Unmanned Aerial Vehicles/drones.
Our vision is sustainable agriculture and food security through universal digital access to agronomy knowledge and best farming practices.”

“Doing current projects, we realised that the idea we have put forward has a huge impact on the agricultural sector. By adopting our drone farming method, we have been able to increase
the crop yield of the farmers by 35 per cent and reduce the utilisation of agricultural resources by up to 70 per cent. Yield loss could be minimised by being able to detect the disease earlier and
for that, our FIA spectra UAV is best suited for this job,” he added. Currently, the company is working with 220 farmers in Kerala on a consolidated area of about 10000 acres. The firm is providing its services to these farmers on a regular basis and in future, it is planning to expand its services to pan India level.

Hurdles blocking the growth

As operating drones requires a specialised set of skills, there’s a lot of potential for creating jobs in rural areas by offering training in this area. A total of around 2.1 million new rural jobs are expected to be created as a result of these cuttingedge technologies. But still there are a number of issues that need to be addressed in order for adoption to be successful. Highlighting one major issue, Mrinal Pai, CoFounder, Skylark Drones said “In addition to the advantages, the use of drones in agriculture has some limitations. Due to their larger payloads, drones can fly for 20-60 minutes on a single charge. This results in a smaller area covered per charge and a higher operating cost for the drone. Research into developing lighter, longerlasting batteries for agricultural drones needs to be accelerated by the government in order to increase their operational flexibility.”

He further said, “At the very first time, the farmers give us a very confused look when we brief them about our innovative solutions. But as they get used to our products and services then it is a smooth ride for them. This is a very important aspect of our business to make farmers aware of the benefits that this technology brings to them and for that, we provide free services to them on an initial stage.”

Enhancing the skill set of the farmers

As mentioned earlier, operating drones require a different set of skills and to attain these, proper training is required so that these flying machines can be operated at an ease. But unlike in the past, now most of the farmers are technically sound therefore; these farmers can be trained easily. Concurrently, it will create enormous job opportunities as more of the youth will join the agro sector and with their knowledge and skills, this technology can revolutionise this entire domain. To meet the growing demand for drones in agriculture, the newly established Kaushalya – The Skill University (KSU) in Ahmedabad has established its School of Drones, which will enrol and train 20,000 children from rural backgrounds and farming families. The university has come up with the idea of “trainer entrepreneurs” as a solution to the lack of available drone technology trainers. It has taken the university five years to put together a road map that includes input from civil aviation, flying schools, drone federations, drone startups, and industry leaders. Drone flying skills, drone assembly and maintenance, value-added services such as data analysis and artificial intelligence application, among other things, are all part of the curriculum at KSU’s ‘School of Drones,’ which will be established in the near future.Using the infrastructure of the university, these trainers whose remuneration will be linked
to their performance, will be paid by the state government through university in case of free or subsidised training. More the trainees, the more, the trainers earn with the university fixing the rates.

Nitin Konde

Drone technology is all the rage right

Today, satellite-driven technology, big data analytics and digital solutions are helping farmers in many countries including India to make better and more informed cropping decisions. Drones have become one among the most promising emerging technologies. However, the benefit quotient of these airborne unmanned tech can be expedited by some swift and pragmatic governmental interventions. According to a report published by Allied Market Research, the global agriculture drones market size was valued at $0.88 billion in 2020, and is projected to reach $5.89 billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 22.4 per cent from 2021 to 2030. Keeping these stats in mind, let’s delve deeper.

Even though the Agri-drone sector in India is at a very nascent stage, the future looks promising as there are many key players like Bayer, CropLife India, BharatRohan, Dhanuka, among other players, entering the Indian market to expand the use of drone technology. Recently, the Government of India has introduced new rules and regulations pertaining to drones which has made operations easier for the drone companies.

The policy on Kisan Drones will significantly boost the Agri Drone Industry in India with grants, subsidies, and research opportunities. Apart from its advantages and benefits, the drone industry faces bigger concerns like labour shortage, proper training of operators, use of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and cost aspect which restricts the industry from adopting this technology. All these concerns call for looking at this technology in a more comprehensive way.

Can drone industry flourish in India?
According to a report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and global consultancy firm, EY, Indian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) market is expected to touch $885.7 million by 2021, while the global market size of drone is pegged at $21.47 billion. Currently India is the 5th largest importer of drones. In the past few years, use of drones in agriculture has gained a lot of attention in digital space and precision agriculture is the need of the hour. There is an immediate need for the agricultural sector to adopt leading-edge digital and precision agriculture technologies to improve farm productivity and democratise access to market information for all farmers in India. Drone technology can potentially revolutionise the farming industry through need-based precise and focused application of crop inputs.

As pointed out by Rishabh Choudhary, Co-Founder & CTO, BharatRohan, “We have a population of 1.3 billion people which is projected to reach 1.6 billion by 2050 and we must find ways to meet the increased food demand without modifying natural resources. Still, an average Indian farmer loses 20-25 per cent of his crop due to pests, diseases, and various other ecological factors. Precision agriculture can help farmers make better informed decisions while helping them with sustainable farming practices and increase their profit per acre. Drones are very versatile and can help us understand the state of crops at centimetre level precision with high efficiency and low cost and can also help farmers spray chemicals at a much faster pace.”

He further said, “Rise in venture capital funding for the deployment of drones in the agriculture industry and surge in adoption of precision farming solutions by the farmers drives the growth of the agri drone industry. The increase in the automation industry in farming and agriculture provides abundant growth opportunities for drone’s application in the agriculture sector.”

Adopting drone technology
With the market for agricultural drones reaching a whopping $1.3 billion globally, the purpose of adopting drone technology is to focus n accurate and reliable information. For which, industry players and the government of India are working keenly towards drone adoption technology in the country. As mentioned by Choudhary, “Recently the Government of India came up with new Drone rules and regulations which has made operations easier for the Drone companies and Policy on Kisan Drones will significantly boost the Agri Drone Industry in India with grants, subsidy and research opportunities provided by the government. Agri drones will be the future of India. Drone startups can use this opportunity to accomplish better technological capacities. It is also a pushing for public-private partnerships for high-tech farm services in which drone technology will be a major player. All these efforts would not just encourage farmers to switch to digital and mechanised farming but also boost growth in the agribusiness sector and create more employment opportunities for youth.”

In another initiative, the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed extensive use of drones in agriculture, including spraying insecticides and nutrients. The proposed drones-as-a-service (DRaaS) model has capabilities to revamp and boost India’s fragmented drone industry for new business and employment avenues. In her budget speech, the minister spoke about the Drone Shakti scheme, encouraging drones as a service in our country. Undoubtedly, drones have evolved from defence only equipment to multi-purpose equipment, which can be used for several sectors like governance, farming, logistics, to name a few.

Furthermore, Ministry of Agriculture has recently granted interim approval to 477 pesticides for drone usage, to fast track agridrone adoption in India. For this, each pesticide needs to be approved by the Central Insecticide Board and Registration Committee which would take 18-24 months. The registered pesticides will include insecticides, fungicides, and plant growth regulators (PGRs), for commercial use throughdrones for two years.

How cost effective is it?

The first and foremost issue that is faced by this industry is the cost aspect of drones. As highlighted by Navneet Ravikar, Chairman &Managing Director, Leads Connect Services, “Possibilities of a phenomenal thrive in the Agri Drone industry is imminent regardless of the challenges it may face due to the requirement of change in the mindset of the stakeholders. First and foremost, the issue is regarding the cost aspect of drones. There is apprehension that this may either discourage or create doubts in the minds of the farmers.”


Managing cost-aspect of drones
Consideration of cost aspects should now be in the context of long-term returns. Especially when there is a looming threat of climate change and shrinking arable land on agricultural productivity.
Intervention of technology is now indispensable to increase agricultural productivity, which will certainly help in recovering the cost of implemented technologies. There is a need to work on possibilities where financial assistance can be given to farmers or Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) for adopting advanced technologies. The government has already announced a huge subsidy on drones
being purchased by FPOs.

Boosting agri-drone industry
To boost the agri-drone industry in India, many key players have stepped up with initiatives that have helped farmers exponentially. Delhibased agritech startup BharatRohan Airborne Innovations has helped 3600 mint farmers in Uttar Pradesh to save around Rs 3620 per acre. Choudhary said, “BharatRohan is currently serving 20,000 acres of the land owned by farmers spread across Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat. We incentivise farmers who implement our sustainable crop advisories to farmers associated with industrial buyers who are looking for traceable farm produce and
ingredients. We have thorough experience in working with crops like Sugarcane, Japanese Mint, Paddy, Potato, and some seed spices and pulses.”

He further pointed out, “By using drone technology, we can optimise wastes as Agri drones enable optimum usage of all the resources in the field. We use UAV/Drone based hyperspectral imagery for agri-advisory and drone based digital soil testing. We deploy advanced remote sensing tools like drones equipped with Hyperspectral Cameras to monitor the agriculture crops of the subscriber farmers on a 7 to 15-day interval. Thereby replacing the guesswork of traditional practices with scientific advisory. Hyperspectral imaging is a tool that helps them detect minuscule colour changes occurring in a plant when it is infested by a pest or a disease.” The startup has recently raised seed fundinginvestments in a round led by Upaya Social Ventures and Acumen Fund, to expand its dronebased crop monitoring in Rajasthan and Gujarat. Furthermore, with the central government giving impetus to ‘Kisan Drones’, drone startups as well as large industry players like Mahindra Farm Equipment Sector and CropLife are putting together their agri drone strategy.

There has been an exceptional collaborative and consultative fast paced policy making process led by the Government with stakeholders’ involvement, preceding the Budget announcements for Krishi Drones. CropLife India was closely involved in development of the drone application Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and Guidelines for use of Drone application for crop protection, as part of the expert committee set up, and shared best practices across Asian countries.

Sharing his insights on this, Asitava Sen, Chief Executive Officer, CropLife India said, “The government is already playing a facilitator’s role with progressive policies, subsidy schemes and production-linked incentives to make India a major hub for drones.” He further said, “We should now look into how all stakeholders can work together to help develop a Conducive Ecosystem for Drone Applications in Agriculture. The objective forevery stakeholder should be market development through farmer awareness, successful demonstrations and evolving innovative business models. There will be plenty of scope for improving market share later.”

Not only this, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently launched Kisan Drones at 100 places across the country from Manesar. “I am sure this launch will not only prove to be a milestone in the development of the drone sector but will also open endless doors of possibilities. I am also told that Garuda Aerospace has set a target of making one lakh ‘Made in India’ drones in the next two years. This will generate new jobs and new opportunities for several youngsters. I congratulate the team of Garuda Aerospace,” said PM Modi.

According to the PM, the Kisan Drone is now the beginning of a new age revolution in this direction. In another step towards realising a collective vision of an Atmanirbhar Bharat, the Central Government has also approved the ProductionLinked Incentive (PLI) scheme for drones and drone components.

In another step towards realising a collective vision of an Atmanirbhar Bharat, the Central Government has also approved the ProductionLinked Incentive (PLI) scheme for drones and drone components.

Global scenario

According to the report published by Allied Market Research (AMR), the global agriculture drones’ market was estimated at $0.88 billion how all stakeholders can work together to help develop a Conducive Ecosystem for Drone Applications in Agriculture. The objective for every stakeholder should be market development through farmer awareness, successful demonstrations and evolving innovative business models. There will be plenty of scope for improving market share later.”

One of the leading global suppliers of specialty chemicals for agriculture, Clariant has recently launched DropForward: a focused approach to providing precision application with adjuvants and co- formulants. The company is offering its customers Synergen DRT: the first solution to come out of its DropForward concept. “Synergen DRT helps to control drift and volatility of fine droplets during application and helps improving the coverage and penetration of the actives in the leaves, boosting biological performance as well as making drone spraying more sustainable and environmentally friendly,” said Fabio Caravieri, Clariant’s Head of Marketing, Industrial & Consumer Specialties.

Further, Bayer has partnered with innovative drone startup, General Aeronautics and conducted several in-house and external R&D trials with universities and central research institutions to generate data to make drone-based services available to farmers. Another leading firm ADAMA and Agremo, a leading aerial analytics provider, have announced an expansion programme of the ADAMA EagleEye, a drone analytics farming platform powered by Agremo and operated by ADAMA.

Dispelling doubts, instilling confidence
The most relevant measure that is required from the industry is to make use of drones cost effective for farmers.

Ravikar said, “It is important to understand that the success of the drone industry is also dependent on the conviction of farmers that using drones will not create a huge financial burden for them. So, in the truest essence, drone manufacturers must start putting farmers on priority when they discuss their business models on the table. However, we are yet to be fully selfsufficient in drone manufacturing. Sum it up, we have a long way to cover to provide cost effective methods using drones.”

He added, “Also, the growth of the agri drone industry is dependent on encouraging frameworks where multi and inter disciplinary technologies can be incorporated seamlessly. In addition, this is also very important to understand that flying drones across regions can be cumbersome and time consuming. Therefore, robust smart drone survey frameworks need to be developed. Besides making the process of data collection easy and seamless, smart drone surveys can be instrumental in threshold analysis, and such analysis is necessary for upscaling things.”

Besides this, the government needs to create a positive outlook for imports and provide policy support for ‘Make in India’ drones.

Pooja Yadav
pooja.yadav@mmactiv.com


Today, satellite-driven technology, big data analytics and

According to the minster, new technology is aimed to reach more and more farmers, which will facilitate the farmers, reduce the cost and increase the income

Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar inaugurated and addressed the conference on ‘Promoting Kisan Drones: Issues, Challenges and the Way Ahead’ organized as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

Tomar said that the government is promoting the use of drones for the convenience of the farmers, reducing the cost and increasing the income. For promoting the use of Kisan Drones, the government is providing 50 per cent or a maximum Rs 5 lakh subsidy to SC-ST, small and marginal, women and farmers of northeastern states to buy drones. For other farmers, financial assistance will be given up to 40 per cent or a maximum Rs 4 lakh.

Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Kailash Choudhary said that this new technology is aimed to reach more and more farmers, which will facilitate them, reduce the cost and increase their income. Under this vision of the Prime Minister, work is being done expeditiously under the guidance of Union Agriculture Minister Tomar. During the attack of locust, the government had also promptly used drones and helicopters for rescue.

Agriculture Secretary Manoj Ahuja said that the conditions are favourable to take drones to the farmers and the government is also committed in this regard. ICAR Director-General Dr Trilochan Mohapatra said that ICAR is contributing through research and training. With this, more and more farmers will be ready to use drones. Joint Secretary Shomita Biswas delivered the welcome address. Additional Secretary Prashant Kumar Swain proposed a vote of thanks. Farmers and entrepreneurs of the drone, fertiliser and pesticide sector, startup operators, and representatives of IFFCO and KVK were present at the conference.

According to the minster, new technology is

The company is offering its customers with Synergen DRT: the first solution to come out of our DropForward concept

One of the leading global suppliers of specialty chemicals for agriculture, Clariant has launched DropForward: a focused approach to providing precision application with adjuvants and co-formulants. The company is offering its customers Synergen DRT: the first solution to come out of our DropForward concept.

Synergen DRT, the drift control agent and biological activator specifically for drones. Developed in Clariant’s high-tech facilities in Germany, and under real-life conditions in Brazil, this high-performing adjuvant allows the application of standard pesticides under the low volume conditions of small drone tanks.

“Synergen DRT helps to control drift and volatility of fine droplets during application and helps improving the coverage and penetration of the actives in the leaves, boosting biological performance as well as making drone spraying more sustainable and environmentally friendly,” said Fabio Caravieri, Clariant’s Head of Marketing, Industrial & Consumer Specialties.

The new adjuvant technology has shown that with small doses of the adjuvant, a robust performance is obtained in the control of drift and performance, even when used with mixtures of products, and standing out in the desiccation of weeds, ensuring higher efficacy of herbicides.

The company is offering its customers with

The fresh capital will be used to scale the traceable, sustainable, and profitable ecosystem of seed spices, oilseeds and pulses

Delhi-based agritech startup BharatRohan Airborne Innovations has raised seed funding investments in a round led by Upaya Social Ventures and Acumen Fund.

The fresh capital will be used to strengthen its foothold across Rajasthan and Gujarat and scale its traceable, sustainable, and profitable ecosystem of seed spices, oilseeds, and pulses across 2 lakh acres of area in the next 18 months. The investment will help build the capability to sell close to 7,000 metric tonne of seed spices like cumin, coriander, fenugreek, carom, and fennel to different institutional buyers.

The startup provides drone-based advisory services to nearly 6,000 farmers across 20,000 acres in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Out of which almost 20 per cent purchase agri-inputs from the company. This relationship enables the company to implement sustainable farming practices and to track every farm activity on the ground. Consequently, this ensures that the farm output meets the quality parameters of the buyers as BharatRohan also procures farm produce from the same farmers and supplies them to the major retail chains, FMCG players, masala makers and exporters based in India.

The fresh capital will be used to

A slew of measures is likely to benefit the sector

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while announcing the Budget 2022, gave a special emphasis on the agriculture sector. Sitharaman mentioned the government’s priority for farmers cultivating paddy, kharif and rabi crops under which 1,000 LMT Paddy is expected to be procured benefitting over 1 crore farmers.

Rs 2.37 lakh crores will be transferred to 163 lakh farmers as Minimum Support Price (MSP) for the procurement of paddy, wheat, rabi and kharif. Chemical-free, natural farming will be promoted across the country with a focus on farmers’ land in 5 km wide corridors along the river Ganga. She also mentioned branding millet products nationally and internationally.

The budget also mentioned the use of drone technology for farming activities. States will be encouraged to revise syllabi of agricultural universities to meet the need for natural, zero-budget and organic farming, modern-day agriculture.

Sitharaman also mentioned a fund with blended capital raised under co-investment model facilitated through NABARD to finance startups in agriculture & rural enterprises for farm produce value chain. Apart from these, finance startups to receive incentives to aid rural enterprises.

A slew of measures is likely to