Pros & Cons of agricultural drones
For any new technology to be embraced, especially among farmers, it takes a while. Like the Green revolution, Agri-drone technology also takes a while to be picked up. Institutions like FPOS, Common service centres and KVKS play a huge role in getting farmers to adopt drone technology. There is also a huge push from the Government of India towards drones. The budget has focused on Kisan Drones for crop assessment, digitisation of land records and spraying of insecticides and FPO subsidies will certainly help leverage the technology.
Drones can drastically change the way we practice agriculture. Crop intelligence and crop protection solution using drones and AI. Crop intelligence-based drone or satellite imaging creates inspection and surveillance for farmers to identify any crop stress in real-time and take corrective actions. Crop protection is done using spraying drones. It covers fields faster and efficiently across all corners. Further crop protection drones can be used for multiple purposes from direct seeding, fertiliser application and pollination. With climate change at our doorstep, it is important that we adopt smart technologies for our food security.
The drone market at present and at large has a single purpose drone that might hinder the path but with evolving designs and fuel technologies, multi-purpose drones will alleviate those obstacles. Once the demand picks up and economies of scale are reached, drones will be costeffective. Apart from that, drones eliminate the shortage of labour, optimising inputs such as pesticides and fertilisers and thus making the entire process.
Most of the inputs necessary for leveraging drone technology is already in place. Agriculture comes under green zone for drones, most of the regulatory compliances and SOPS are already in place. The Make in India and PLI scheme has also boosted the technology. Parts needed are also indigenously manufactured. Market access and design research and development is something that needs more penetration.
Drones have an immense potential to revolutionise the agriculture sector. It can help in removing obstacles like land records, crop assessment, crop monitoring, spraying, Nano-urea, direct seeding, integrated pest management and help the nation realise the dream of doubling the farmers income.