Anantapur to get 93 drones for farm use

Anantapur: The state government has come up with a scheme of introducing drones to help farmers in spraying fertilisers and pesticides on their crops, by hiring drones from the RBK at a cost-effective price, as farmers depending on manual labour for physically spraying is finding it expensive to carry on the whole operation.

About 93 drones has been earmarked for the district farmers associated with Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBK) by the state government. Three drones per mandal involving RBK's that have high cultivation acreage under their purview will be zeroed in and farmers that are fairly educated with 10 plus 2 qualification or diploma holders in education will be considered and will be designated as pilot farmers for carrying on drones operation. The drones will be supplied on 40 to 50 percent subsidy with bank loan linkages. The selection of RBKs will be completed by the end of the month.

On January 23, to promote the use of drones for agricultural purposes and reduce the labour burden on the farmers, the government of India has offered a 100 percent subsidy or Rs 10 lakh, whichever is less, up to March 2023 to the Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institutes, ICAR Institutes, Krishi Vigyan Kendras and State Agriculture Universities. Additionally, a contingency fund of Rs 6,000/hectare will also be set up for hiring drones from Custom Hiring Centres (CHC). The subsidy and the contingency funds will help the farmers access and adopt this extensive technology at an inexpensive price. On November 16, 2020, the government granted the International Crops Research Institute (ICRISAT) to use drones for agricultural research activities. With this move, the government hopes to encourage budding researchers and entrepreneurs to look at budget-friendly drone solutions for more than 6.6 lakh Indian villages.