Drones in Indian Agriculture

Table of Contents

• Introduction to Agriculture Drones
• What are the Applications of Drones in Agriculture?
  • Farmland & Soil Assessment
  • Crop Establishment
  • Spraying
  • Crop Monitoring
  • Irrigation Management
  • Crop Health Assessment
  • Livestock Monitoring
• What are the Benefits of Drones in Agriculture?
• What are the Major Challenges in Using Drones in Agriculture?
  • Weather Dependent
  • Technical Skills
  • Operational Cost
• What are the Government Regulations for Using Drones?
• What are the Popular Schemes for Drones in India?
  • Pradhan Mantri Drone Didi Yojana
  • Kisan Drone Scheme

Introduction to Agriculture Drones

With 47 per cent of the Indian population dependent on agriculture, boosting productivity and ensuring the nation's food security. We can improve productivity in agriculture with advanced technologies and computerized solutions. One such example of technology helping in productivity improvement is the use of drones.

Drones, which are commonly referred to as UAVs or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, are used in different aspects of farming, such as crop estimation, crop protection, crop monitoring, managing irrigation, and soil estimation. We will discuss how drones are transforming agriculture, their application, benefits, challenges, government regulations & schemes and future scope.

What are the Applications of Drones in Agriculture?

• Farmland & Soil Assessment
• Crop Establishment
• Spraying
• Crop monitoring
• Irrigation Management
• Crop Health Assessment
• Livestock monitoring

Farmland & Soil Assessment

Drones collect data regarding soil analysis before the start of the season and after crop planting. This data is then used in planning the crop species to be sown, planting pattern, and determining the quantity and time of nutrient and irrigation application. These management decisions taken at the farm level can improve farm's overall productivity. This approach offers the opportunity to acclimate site-specific management methods, such as precision farming.

Crop Establishment

Because of labour scarcity, crop sowing has become expensive and burdensome work nowadays which traditionally requires a lot of human labour. With the help of drones, planting has been simplified on a large scale with extreme accuracy and exactness in a short time. Using drones in planting process has reduced the planting cost by up to 85% and minimizes the strenuous work through on-the-ground planting.

Spraying

Drone spraying is one of the most useful agricultural activities. Drones can efficiently perform site-specific spraying of fertilizers and pesticides on farms, reducing farmer's manual labour. Farmers use sensors to scan the area in real-time. Drones can spray five times faster than traditional methods. It improves spraying accuracy and saves time and cost in the long run. Prior adjustment to the speed, altitude and spraying accuracy is highly useful even in challenging terrains. The advantage of using drones for spraying is that it reduces the direct involvement of humans during the spraying of hazardous chemicals.

Crop Monitoring

Regular crop monitoring offers considerable information regarding different aspects of the crops. However, it is impossible to regularly monitor the crops due to unforeseen conditions, such as unpredictable weather; thus, drones offer great benefits during those times. They are simple to use for mass surveillance of agricultural land and crops. Monitoring crops in real-time offers precise data regarding crop development and helps easily and quickly identify any crop issue. This permits farmers to make informed decisions quickly to deal with any significant issues in crops.

Irrigation Management

Drones with thermal sensing cameras provide exceptional perspective into specific troubled regions of the farm for irrigation. These digital cameras can help monitor many insights, from low moisture-stressed conditions to waterlogging. It allows farmers to make irrigation management decisions according to the status of water in the soil. It helps in precision water application on the farm.

Crop Health Assessment

Crop health monitoring is important to detect crop bacterial and fungal diseases. It can be done by drones using green visible light along with near-infrared light. It scans the crops to detect disease incidence in temporal and spatial variation according to crop reflectance. Using drones can help in the early detection of these diseases and in making interventions to safeguard crops.

Livestock Monitoring

Animal husbandry also uses drones. RFID tags are marked on animals, and their activity is monitored using drones. Livestock tracking can be done with less labour investment and less time. Farmers can create remote sensing-fencing or virtual boundaries in regions with vast livestock grazing areas.

What are the Benefits of Drones in Agriculture?

• Improved accuracy
• Improved efficiency
• Profitability
• Improved Yield

Improved Accuracy: Drones for agriculture purposes can provide data through high-resolution images of farms. This offers us a detailed view of the farm and can help us make the necessary adjustments on time with improved precision.

Improved Efficiency: We can easily gain substantial information regarding the field using drones, which can cover a large zone in one go. This allows us to monitor the crops and farms based on the collected data, thus tweaking things to improve overall productivity.

Profitability: Drones can increase overall profitability by reducing dependence on manual labour. Drones can accurately and precisely identify these areas and help reduce the cost involved in pesticides by limiting their use to specific parts only.

Improved Yield: Drones can help gather crop health information and data, which allows us to take action on time, thus protecting the crop on time and increasing the yield.

What are the Major Challenges in Using Drones in Agriculture?

Weather Dependent

Drones may not perform optimally in challenging weather conditions such as harsh rainfall or windy conditions, thus limiting their use in these times.

Technical Skills

While drones in farming offer benefits, they require suitable technical skills to operate a drone, which farmers cannot gain before training. However, the government provides drone training programs to help farmers develop skills and expertise in operating drones. Also, 63 DGCA-approved Remote Pilot Training Organisations provide drone training.

Operational Cost

The initial cost of farming by drones is high, which adds to the operational cost incurred when using them. Once the drone is purchased, spraying cost is affordable for an individual farmer.

What are the Government Regulations for Using Drones?

Government regulations play an important role in shaping the use of drones in agriculture. It influences how drone technology in agriculture can be used, its deployment, potential benefits and safety.

A license from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is required to operate drones for agriculture purposes. This is to prevent any air space violation and protect privacy. This is to ensure several aspects related to airspace management, data security, national security, safety of others, environmental impact, and legal consequences.

What are the Popular Schemes for Drones in India?

Pradhan Mantri Drone Didi Yojana

Under this scheme, 15,000 women-led Self-Help Groups are eligible to get agriculture drones for their farming needs. It offers employment opportunities, improves productivity, and helps deliver essential items.

Kisan Drone Scheme

The scheme aims to empower farmers through the utilization of drones to streamline diverse farming tasks like irrigation and crop spraying to reduce labour and time and increase farmers' income.

Indian Council of Agricultural Research affiliated institutes, Central Government Agricultural Institutions, State Agriculture Universities, Public Sector Undertakings and Krishi Vigyan Kendra can avail full financial support for drone technology in agriculture, covering 100 per cent of the cost up to 10 lakhs per drone.

Hiring centres affiliated with the Farmer Cooperative Society offer up to 4 lakhs or 40 per cent in the procurement of drones.

Farmers in the North-Eastern States and marginal farmers are eligible for financial aid of 50 per cent in drone acquisition up to 5 lakhs.