Medziphema, September 2 (MExN): The Department of Agriculture, Nagaland launched first of its kind agriculture ‘Kisan Drone’ at IETC Medziphema on September 1.
Addressing at the launching programme, Director of Agriculture, M Ben Yanthan said that one of the important announcements of Union Budget 2022-23 is that the use of kisan drones will be promoted for crop assessment, digitization of land records, spraying of insecticides and nutrients and the Ministry of Civil Aviation has already notified the liberalized Drone Rules 2021.
A press release received here stated that Yanthan said, “The Department of Agriculture felt the need to first familiarize itself with this new technology by way of conducting Demonstrations at Department Research Stations and Farmers field wherever feasible and need arises.”
“To promote use of drones in agriculture and make drone technology affordable to the farmers and other stakeholders of this sector, the provisions have been made under the guidelines of Sub Mission Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) and the Department of Agriculture, have received sanctions for procurement of two drones under Component-4 of the SMAM Guideline during the Financial Year 2022-23 which is at the Subsidized financial assistance of 40 % of the total cost of the kisan drone,” Yanthan informed.
The drones will be placed at two important institutes of the Department namely SARS and IETC and will be deployed to conduct drone various demonstration activities by the two trained pilots, he added.
Yanthan also further said that the use of drone technology in agriculture is here to stay and this emerging technology can help reduce time and increase the efficiencies of the farmers in the case of pesticide spraying, replacing labor-intensive and hazardous conventional methods, particularly in difficult areas such as hills and dense crops such as sugarcane, Precision Agriculture (SSCM).
“A drone for agriculture use is gaining immense popularity due to how precisely they can collect crop and field data and help farmers stay ahead of any farming challenges and these drones for agriculture help with the following, reducing operational costs, improving crop quality and increasing yield,” he added.
Highlighting on 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 ratment, crop scouting, and irrigation and carry out field soil analysis and crop damage assessments.
He also highlighted that an agricultural drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle applied to farming in order to help increase crop production and monitor crop growth.
During the programme the demonstration of kisan drone was presented by Thangaraj Smart Dhaksha Unmanned System Pvt Ltd Chennai India. Welcome address was delivered by C Peter Yanthan, Addl. Director and vote of thanks by Pikato Jimo, Dy DA SMAM.
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