New Delhi: The Ministry of Agriculture is promoting adoption of Kisan drones which helps both to create employment opportunities and enhance efficiency in the agriculture sector.
Financial assistance is provided for purchase of drones by the farmers on individual ownership basis, and establishment of Custom Hiring Centres (CHC) of Kisan drones for providing services to farmers on rental basis. Under the Sub-Mission of Agricultural Mechanization, funds amounting to Rs 141.39 crore have been released for the Kisan Drone promotion.
These funds include amount released to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for purchase of drones and organizing their demonstrations on the farmers’ fields through 100 Krishi Vigyan Kendras, 75 ICAR institutions, and 25 State Agricultural Universities, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Ramnath Thakur informed.
Expressing his views on Drone system, Rakesh Kumar, Horticulture expert, told ETV Bharat, "It is very useful in agriculture sector but drones are very costly to buy. It helps to save time as it takes only 20-25 minutes to spray in a acre land however we have to spend 3-4 hours in manually spraying."
For the Drone Pilot Training purpose, the institutes of ICAR have procured 296 drones and 287 personnel from these institutions have undergone this training. Around 27,099 drone demonstrations have been carried out on nutrients, fertilizers and pesticide applications following the Standard Operating Procedures covering 30,235 hectare areas, the Rajya Sabha data stated.
The Central government has provided funds to States for supplying Kisan Drones to farmers on subsidy and establishment of CHCs to provide drone services to the farmers.
Talking about drone system, farmer Guramneet Mangat of Uttar Pradesh told ETV Bharat, "Government is talking about using drones in agriculture but farmers often don't afford to purchase it because of its high cost. Farmers have to invest around Rs 6-7 lakh to buy a normal capacity drone which puts extra burden on a middle class farmer."
Besides this, using drones help reduce human exposure to hazardous chemicals during spraying pesticides and fertilizers which save farmers from disease effects after coming in contact with pesticides. Using drones provide several benefits like drones increase efficiency of farmers and reduce cost of spraying, save fertilizers, pesticides due to high degree of atomization, and low water use due to ultra-low volume spraying, Thakur informed to Rajya Sabha.
"Drone's cost and its maintenance often discourage us to move towards using this technology. Otherwise it is helpful for farmers for saving water and helpful in the health point of view during pesticide spray," another farmer Amarpal Singh told ETV Bharat.
