Indian drone makers set for a supply order of 2,500 units from a farmers' cooperative

The Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) launched on Tuesday a nationwide campaign for procuring 2,500 drones. These drones are set to be called "IFFCO Kisan Drones" and are expected to boost the fertilser sector.

IFFCO Managing Director & CEO US Awasthi tweeted, "IFFCO forays into Agri-Drones through “IFFCO Kisan Drone"." He said this is the "Biggest Smart Agri-Solutions in India by procuring 2500 agri drones as Spray Solutions for Nano Urea and Nano DAP (Di-ammonium Phosphate)".

Laying out his future plans, Awasthi added that the IFFCO will also establish "5000 Rural Entrepreneurs for spray solutions". "Further, IFFCO (will be) procuring 2500 Electric Three Wheelers (loader types) to carry Agri-Drones to the farmers’ fields," he said.

Meanwhile, Drone manufacturer Garuda Aerospace said on Tuesday it has secured an order of 400 Agri Kisan Drones from IFFCO. "This takes Garuda Aerospace's order book tally to 10,000 drones for this year within the first three months," it said in a statement.

"The collaboration between Garuda Aerospace and IFFCO aims to revolutionise the agricultural sector by introducing the Garuda Kisan Drone at the 'IFFCO Drone Yatra' in Karnataka.

The drone initiative aims to uplift 5,000 rural entrepreneurs who were identified by the IFFCO to be trained for spraying drones. "It is a huge Step for Upliftment of Rural Economy and a step towards Sustainable Agriculture and Holistic Cooperative development," an ANI report said.

The IFFCO, in collaboration with WOW Go Green, had in 2021 organised a 10-day workshop on the use of agricultural drones. Under the programme, farmers were trained to use drones for the spraying fertilizers and insecticides over the crops.

A total of 36 participants including farmers, entrepreneurs, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), Cooperatives from the states of Delhi (1), Haryana (15), Uttar Pradesh (11) and Gujarat (9) successfully completed the training course.

The IFFCO is planning to promote the usage of nano fertilisers such as nano Urea and Nano DAP using a drone and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies across the country in technical collaboration with Agricultural Universities and technical institutes.

According to an ANI report, DRONAI is an integrated program that promotes the foliar application of Nano fertilisers and other agrochemicals by combining Drone, Nano, Artificial Intelligence and mobile technologies. Through DRONAI technology, the spraying cost to farmers shall be reduced by 50 percent, ANI reported. This would also save time and avoide drudgery and health issues associated with manual spraying of agricultural chemicals.

The report said farmers can access these advanced technologies through their mobile App. This is expected to make spraying efficient, cost-effective and safe. While spraying, the Artificial intelligence (AI) based software can detect crop growth and health and guides the farmers towards Smart farming.

All the mandatory protocols related to drones, their transport vehicle and safe flying are inbuilt into this process and coordinated by farmer friendly mobile App, the report said in May this year.

A unique electric tri-wheeler has been specially designed for the safe transport of drones to farmers' fields. An integrated software platform that can run under any mobile would be available for farmers that would connect all users (drone operator, farmer, field officer and central control unit).

This would help to monitor the drones on a dynamic basis and monitor the spray efficiency (acre/day) remotely. Besides, the app would help the farmers to book spray well in advance comfortably just by a click in the app.