Drones, which may otherwise sound like a technological nightmare for a common farmer of the country has now been simplified by the DFI President. From buying the UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), commonly known as drones, to using them, he not only described the usage of drones (general aviation/aerial work) but also envisioned as to how drones may be the new future of agricultural farming in India. The President, Smit Shah, and the Director of Operations, Deep Kanakia, of the Drone Federation of India, visited KJ Chaupal, held at Krishi Jagran headquarters, New Delhi.
“To buy drones which cost around Rs 6-8 lakhs, major subsidy schemes have been made available by the Government of India (GOI). For Krishi Vigyan Kendra, KVKs, and Government Universities, a subsidy of 100% of the total value has been provided. A 75% subsidy for the Farmer Producer Organisations, and for Custom Hiring Centres (rural entrepreneurship) a subsidy of 40% will be allotted”, said the DFI President. “For farmers who want to buy the drones individually, a loan of 90% of the subsidized sum will be provided”. He also mentioned that only 10th-class graduation and a basic understanding of technology are required to be able to fly a drone.
Subsequently, he elaborated on the benefits and applications of drone usage in farming, which can be summed up in following points :
1) For maintaining crop health - It allows you to trace the health of crops by using high-resolution cameras which work much closer to the ground than the naked eye.
2) Disease Protection – While farmers have been spraying insecticides which can cause infections, manually, drones allow you to sit at home and get the work done.
3) Time Saving – They take 8-10 minutes to spray the insecticides/pesticides over an area of 1 acre of land which otherwise takes 1 hour to do so manually.
4) Water Conservation – Drones use only 10-20 litres of water to dilute 1-5 litres of chemical which saves at the very least 80-90% of the water used in otherwise manual spraying techniques, which is about 150-200 litres of water, also leading to further cost-cutting.
5) Cutting down the chemical/soil wastage – With an effectively downward drift of the spray, the horizontal drift of the fertilizers while spraying is almost negligible, which also limits the spoilage of the soil due to an over-exposure to chemicals.
And for the growing concern for promoting the use of organic fertilizers nationally, these drones also have pre-installed spraying attachments for products like granular urea and thicker organic fertilizers. A requirement of remote pilot licence issued by DGCA (which is given within 15 days of the pilot receiving the remote pilot certificate) from an authorised drone school is mandatory. Drones as big as 500 kgs have been permitted for remote usage by the GOI.
