Agri Ministry to come out with SOPs for use of drones

The Agriculture Ministry programs to occur out with normal operating protocols (SOPs) for the use of drones to spray pesticides and vitamins and minerals, a senior official reported on Friday.

“Very soon, we will be coming out with SOPs for use of drones for spraying pesticides and vitamins and minerals, so that they can be utilised for wider programs by farmers and other stakeholders,” reported Shomita Biswas, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture.

Biswas was addressing a convention on Electronic and Precision Agriculture, organised by the CII Southern Area on Friday. The Union govt has just lately notified Drone regulations, 2021. “The drone technological innovation is a essential location and we also want this to be utilised in agriculture,” Biswas reported.

Drones are remaining utilised for spraying vitamins and minerals and pesticides, but with no the ingredient of artificial intelligence and data analytics. The industry should perform towards producing this precision agriculture-linked, while getting care of features this sort of as security, stability and efficacy, she reported.

As the initial cost of using this sort of technological innovation is extremely large, Biswas suggested that the industry perform out some plan or company model so that it can be utilised in the fields. Though leveraging the farmer producer organisations (FPOs) for use of the technological innovation, the industry should search at a public non-public partnership and focus on talent constructing to make the technological innovation perform for farmers, she reported.

Having PPP route

Biswas also identified as on the industry to indigenously build parts to lessen the dependency on imports.

Though stating that mechanisation and precision agriculture has immediate influence on productivity, other than decreasing drudgery, Biswas reported India needs increased software of precision farming technologies which are economically viable. This kind of technologies are also critical to attract rural youth to agriculture and make it much more sustainable.

Farmers have been using equipments this sort of as laser levellers, pneumatic seed drills and drip irrigation amid others, but there is a require for innovators and begin-ups to build technologies that are scalable and simple to use, she reported.

C Anandharamakrishnan, Director, NIFTEM, Thanjavur, pressured the require to minimise the wastage in food stuff production, a massive problem, using precision technologies. Anil Kumar Venkat Epur, Chairman, CII, Southern Area Agri, Food items processing, Animal Agriculture Sub Committee, suggested the require for a strong public non-public partnerships to consider the technological innovation gains to the farmers.

S Chandramohan, Co-Chairman, CII SR Agri, Food items Processing, Animal Agriculture Sub-committee Director, reported the uptake of electronic technologies in agriculture is sluggish mostly because of to the segregated smallholder farms in the country, which helps make data gathering a complex action. Constrained percolation of mechanisation applications and recurring all-natural phenomenon like floods and droughts have also worked towards the deployment of electronic options in the sector.

On top of that, data of distinct areas, marketplaces, soil kind and weather amid others is necessary to make a viable advanced electronic technological innovation, Chandramohan, also Team President (Finance & Investment) TAFE Ltd, reported.