Govt To Promote Drone Use In Agriculture, Provide Grant To Agri Institutes For Drones

_{Updated by NewsGram Team on 23rd January 2022}

The Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar (GBPUA&T) has signed an MoU with an agro-chemical firm to jointly conduct research in crop protection chemicals and promote use of drones in agriculture.

"A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Director of Experiment Station Dr Ajeet Singh Nain on behalf of the University, while Dr Ajeet Singh Tomar, vice president (R&D) signed on behalf of Dhanuka Agritech Ltd.," Dhanuka Agritech announced on Tuesday.

Govt To Promote Drone Use In Agriculture. | Unsplash

Through this partnership, Dhanuka Agritech and the University aim to boost farmers' income by enhancing crop productivity and production. The objective of the MoU includes organising an awareness programme for carrying out agricultural extension services and also for jointly conducting research activities in the field of crop protection chemicals. "Farmers will be encouraged to use modern agriculture technologies such as drone usage, artificial intelligence (AI), and precision agriculture," it said.

Also Read : Study : AI to play major role in India's agricultural development

The Centre has recently released the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the use of drone applications to spray agrochemicals. The University will conduct demonstration/adaptive trials of new molecules/products of Dhanuka at its farms as well as farmers field and will consider the inclusion of the findings (active ingredient only) into the package of practises. "The tie-up with G B Pant University will help us promote research activities in the agriculture and allied activities," Group Chairman, Dhanuka Agritech Ltd., R G Agarwal said.

The Farmers Producers Organisations (FPOs) would be eligible to receive grants up to 75 per cent of the cost of agriculture drone. | Unsplash

"Dhanuka will sponsor bio-efficacy and phyto-toxicity projects to the university for managing insects and pests through drone application. Dhanuka's R&D Division has world-class NABL accredited laboratories," it said in a release. Dhanuka will also provide scholarships to PG Students who are involved in the research work.

The GB Pant University of Agriculture & Technology had recently signed another MoU with an agriculture science company for that company would award four scholarships annually to students pursuing doctorates and master's degrees in agricultural sciences at GB Pant University.

In a major boost to promote precision farming in India, the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has issued guidelines to make drone technology affordable to the stakeholders of this sector. The guidelines of Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization' (SMAM) have been amended, which envisages granting upto 100 per cent of the cost of agriculture drone or Rs 10 lakh, whichever is less, as grant for purchase of drones by the Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institutes, ICAR institutes, Krishi Vigyan Kendras and state agriculture universities for taking up large scale demonstrations of this technology on the farmers' fields.

Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has issued guidelines to make drone technology affordable. | Unsplash

The Farmers Producers Organisations (FPOs) would be eligible to receive grants up to 75 per cent of the cost of agriculture drone for its demonstrations on the farmers' fields, a release from the Ministry of Agriculture said. A contingency expenditure of Rs 6,000 per hectare would be provided to implementing agencies that do not want to purchase drones but will hire them for demonstrations from custom hiring centres (CHCs), hi-tech hubs, drone manufacturers and start-ups.

The contingent expenditure to implementing agencies that purchase drones for drone demonstrations would be limited to Rs 3,000 per hectare. The financial assistance and grants would be available until March 31, 2023. In order to provide agricultural services through drone application, 40 per cent of the basic cost of drone and its attachments or Rs 4 lakh, whichever less would be available as financial assistance for drone purchase by existing CHCs, which are set up by Cooperative Society of Farmers, FPOs and rural entrepreneurs.

The new CHCs or the hi-tech hubs that will be established by the Cooperative Societies of Farmers, FPOs and rural entrepreneurs with financial assistance from SMAM, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana or any other schemes can also include drone as one of the machines along with other agricultural machines in the projects of CHCs/hi-tech hubs, the release said. Agriculture graduates establishing CHCs would be eligible to receive 50 per cent of the basic cost of the drone and its attachments or up to Rs 5 lakh in grant support for drone purchases.

The drone operations are being permitted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and DGCA. | IANS

Rural entrepreneurs should have passed class 10 examination or its equivalent from a recognised board and should have a remote pilot licence from an institute specified by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) or from any authorised remote pilot training organisation. The drone operations are being permitted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and DGCA through the conditional exemption route.

MoCA has published Drone Rules 2021 vide GSR No. 589(E) dated August 25, 2021, to regulate the use and operation of drones in India. The Agriculture and Farmers Welfare department has also brought out standard operating procedures for use of drone application with pesticides for crop protection in agricultural, forestry, non-cropped areas, etc. and for drone application in spraying for soil and crop nutrients. (IANS/SP/ MBI)

(Keywords : Govind Ballabh Pant University, Dhanuka Agritech Ltd, Pantnagar, agriculture, technology, MoU, research, chemicals, crop protection, drones, farmers, productivity, agrochemicals, insects, pests, science)