Agricultural Drone Project
Project Description
With the aim to make drone technology affordable to the stakeholders in a major boost to promote precision farming in India, Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has initiated this project under "Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization" (SMAM). This project is operational in 21 centers of ICAR institutes, Krishi Vigyan Kendras and State Agriculture Universities in Zone 10. These centers purchased 32 drones and demonstrating drone technologies to the farmers in their fields.
During 2024-25 A total of 2112 demonstrations were conducted in the zone covering 1895 ha area with the participation of 14683 farmers. These demos include insecticide sprays, Micronutrient sprays, weedicide sprays and fungicidal sprays. These demos were conducted in the crops like rice, maize, groundnut, sugarcane etc. a total of 6260 demonstrations were conducted on 7610 ha area with the participation of 42049 farmers during past three years from the beginning of the project.
Table 1: Details of drone demonstrations conducted during the 2023-24
| Details | 2024-25 | Cumulative |
|---|---|---|
| No. of Kisan Drone Demonstration organized | 2112 | 6260 |
| Area Covered under the Kisan Drone Demonstration | 1895 | 7610 |
| Number of farmers participated | 14683 | 42049 |
Major advantages of drone technology include reduced time of operation, less labour requirement, requirement ofl less quantity of spray chemical and water as wells uniform spraying. These advantates facilitates timely completion of operations and to overcome labour shortage during the peak seasons. Health hazards to the persons involved in spraying of chemicals is avoided with droned as the contact with spray is avoided. This particularly suitable for large farms and spraying operation can be done in inaccessible areas. Though it is very useful technology it has certain disadvantages like Quick discharge of batteries, non-availability of charging points at filed level, long periods of charging and high cost of batteries limits the use of drones in rural areas.
Drone demo by KVK Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh