Drones in Agriculture
In India, the importance of using the latest technologies for agriculture to help our country prosper has been observed. For example the green revolution where the farmers were provided the latest irrigation techniques & with the help of chemical fertilisers and HYV seeds, India’s crop production output boomed.
The agriculture sector today is the primary source of livelihood for 58% of the country’s population and contributes 19.9% to the nation’s GDP. Even our exports are making record highs crossing $50 bn in FY 2022.
Therefore it is great to see that even many decades later this industry has kept up with the latest technologies to increase output and get better economic results.
But how drones are helping the agriculture industry?
Precision agriculture using drones
‘Precision Agriculture is a management strategy that gathers, processes and analyses temporal, spatial and individual data and combines it with other information to support management decisions according to estimated variability for improved resource use efficiency, productivity, quality, profitability and sustainability of agricultural production.’ Source.
In simple terms, precision agriculture helps assess the farm and crop health using IOT, drones, special camera sensors and high powered software to generate maps of the farm telling us exactly what deficiencies need to be addressed.
Drones are fitted with specialised camera sensors – mostly a narrowband multispectral camera. These camera’s unique feature is that they collect data in Blue, Green, Red, Red-edge and Near Infra-red light. This data is then processed into various spectral indices that are then used to assess the farm’s health.
The spectral indices and what they report are as follows:
Drones for spraying
Apart from its contribution in precision agriculture, drones also help in accurate spraying of fertilisers and pesticides. Manual spraying takes a lot of time and might lead to the fertiliser not being spread uniformly across the field. Handling fertilisers can also be harmful to the health of the workers. (Link: article of farmers dying due to pesticides)
Drones tackle both of these problems above as they have the ability to spray hundreds of acres of land in a day. A Drone also ensures that the entire field is sprayed uniformly.
Operating a drone is also easy. You just need to feel the fertiliser tub, uploading the mission to the drone and giving the command to start.
Current state of use of Agri-drones in India
The potential of drones in agriculture has been understood by the experts and is being explored to its full potential
The Indian Government has put out a certification scheme for agricultural drones that can now carry a payload that does not include chemicals or other liquids used in spraying drones.
The Government has also recently offered, a 100% subsidy or 10 lakhs, whichever is less, up to March 2023 to the Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institutes, ICAR Institutes, Krishi Vigyan Kendras & State Agriculture Universities, in its process to promote the use of drones for agricultural purposes and reduce the labour burden on the farmers, A contingency fund of Rs.6000/hectare will also be set up for hiring Drones from Custom Hiring Centres (CHC). This will help the farmers access and adopt this extensive technology at an inexpensive price.
In 2020, the Indian government granted the International Crops Research Institute (ICRISAT), permission to use drones for agricultural research activities. With these efforts, the government hopes to encourage budding researchers and entrepreneurs to look at budget-friendly drone solutions for more than 6.6 lakh Indian villages. Amber Dubey, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, emphasised that drones are poised to play a big role in agriculture.
Along with these, Startup India has launched a competition to promote the development of Navic enabled drones that can be used for precision agriculture. The last date for applying was 15th August 2022 and the effort is starting with inviting proposals.
Drones are a very useful introduction to the world of agriculture and agri-tech and offer the following services:
Irrigation planning and monitoring.
Crop health monitoring and surveillance
Crop damage assessment
Soil Analysis
Agricultural Spraying and Seeding
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Your unique perspective adds depth to the conversation.