Agriculture department launches kisan drone

DIMAPUR — In what could be a major boost to the agriculture sector in Nagaland, Agriculture department launched the first-of-its-kind agriculture kisan drone on Friday at IETC Medziphema by its director, M Ben Yanthan.

Speaking at the launch event, Yanthan stated that one of the important announcements of Union Budget 2022-23 was that the use of kisan drones would be promoted for crop assessment, digitisation of land records, and spraying of insecticides and nutrients. He added that the Ministry of Civil Aviation has already notified the liberalised Drone Rules 2021, an update from the Agriculture department stated.

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Yanthan said that the department of Agriculture felt the need to first familiarise itself with the new technology by way of conducting demonstrations at department research stations and farmers' fields wherever feasible and the need arises. He also informed that provisions have been made under the guidelines of Sub Mission Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) to promote the use of drones in agriculture and make drone technology affordable to the farmers and other stakeholders.

He stated that the department of Agriculture has received sanctions for procurement of two drones under Component-4 of the SMAM guideline during the financial year 2022-23 which is at the subsidised financial assistance of 40% of the total cost of the kisan drone. He said the drones would be placed at two important institutes of the department namely SARS and IETC and would be deployed to conduct drone various demonstration activities by the two trained pilots.

Yanthan further stated that the use of drone technology in agriculture is here to stay and this emerging technology could help reduce time and increase the efficiencies of the farmers in the case of pesticide spraying, replacing labour-intensive and hazardous conventional methods, particularly in difficult areas such as hills and dense crops such as sugarcane.

He mentioned that drone for agriculture use is gaining immense popularity due to their precision in collecting crop and field data and helping farmers stay ahead of any farming challenges. Drones for agriculture would also help in reducing operational costs, improving crop quality and increasing yield, he said.

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While highlighting Dhaksha agriculture drones, Medovilie Ladu, JDA SMAM, said that agriculture drone empowers the farmers to adapt to specific environments and make mindful choices accordingly and the gained data helps regulate crop health, crop scouting, irrigation and carry out field soil analysis and crop damage assessments.