Innovations in Indian Agriculture: Agri-Drones and Digital Agriculture

The Indian agricultural sector is rapidly adopting innovations, particularly agri-drones and digital agriculture, to enhance productivity, reduce costs, and empower farmers.

Agri-Drones

• A significant development is the launch of Garuda Aerospace's agri-drone indigenisation facility in Chennai, capable of manufacturing over 100,000 drones in the next two years.
• Inauguration of 300 Centres of Excellence (CoE) to foster skills and research & development in drone manufacturing.
• Plans to train self-help groups (SHGs) and young people in drone operations aim to create rural employment and increase technology penetration in farming.
• Agri-drones can cover 10 times the area of manual sprayers in a day, conserving pesticides, fertilizers, water, and minimizing exposure to harmful chemicals.
• Subsidies under the Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanisation offer up to 100% assistance for demonstration drones and 75% support for FPOs purchasing drones.
• The Drone Didi initiative plans to provide 15,000 drones to women-led SHGs by 2026, enhancing agricultural services.
• Drone indigenisation reduces reliance on imports and allows for customized drones suited to Indian agricultural conditions.

Digital Agriculture

• The Digital Agriculture Mission and the creation of Agri Stack integrate land records, farmer IDs, and crop data.
• Digital tools can enhance transparency, improve credit access, and target subsidies and insurance effectively.
• Pilot projects have already issued digital farmer IDs and conducted geo-tagged crop surveys across 436 districts.
• Integration with AI models and real-time satellite data can aid in crop monitoring and provide precision farming recommendations.

Challenges and Solutions

• High costs, inadequate rural connectivity, and a lack of trained operators limit access.
• The fragmented land parcels of small and marginal farmers necessitate shared infrastructure for efficient drone usage.
• Issues of data privacy and ownership need addressing.
• Many farmers are unfamiliar with digital tools, and benefits are often skewed towards well-resourced regions.

To overcome these challenges, there is a need for decentralized capacity building and fostering farmer trust by:

• Investing in last-mile training.
• Ensuring SHGs and FPOs can own and operate drones.
• Protecting farmers' data rights.
• Strengthening digital infrastructure in underserved areas.