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The Centre supports and facilitates the State governments through various Centrally-sponsored and Central sector schemes to infuse new technologies into the agriculture sector, including agricultural drones, according to Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
In a reply in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, he highlighted the steps taken to promote use of drones in agriculture and make drone technology affordable to the farmers and other stakeholders of this sector.
He said financial assistance at 100 per cent cost of drone together with the contingent expenditure is extended under Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanisation (SMAM) to the farm machinery training and testing institutes, institutions of Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) and State agricultural universities for its demonstration on the farmer’s fields.
75% grant for FPOs
Farmers Producers Organizations (FPOs) are provided grants at 75 per cent for purchase of drone for its demonstration on the farmers’ fields.
In order to provide agricultural services through drone application, financial assistance at 40 per cent of the basic cost of drone and its attachments or ₹4 lakh, whichever is less, is also provided for drone purchase by existing and new Custom Hiring Centers (CHCs) under cooperative society of farmers, FPOs and rural entrepreneurs.
He said the agriculture graduates establishing CHCs are eligible to receive financial assistance at 50 per cent of the cost of drone up to a maximum ₹5 lakh.
He said the drone deployment in the agriculture sector of the country is new and the country is gaining experience in this sector, including building up of the start-up ecosystem in different states. To provide impetus to start-ups for agriculture, a component called ‘Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development’ has been launched under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana in 2018-19. Under this programme, start-ups, including for drones, are encouraged to use innovative technologies to resolve challenges faced in agriculture and allied sectors, he said.
Added to this, the Government is implementing the National e-Governance Plan in Agriculture (NeGP-A). Funds are released for sanctioning projects involving use of modern information technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, blockchain technology, Internet of Things, Robotics, etc and for customisation/shifting of web and mobile applications already developed by the States, to the platform to be developed using digital/emerging technologies, he said.
e-NAM
To another question on e-NAM (National Agriculture Market) platform, Tomar said so far more than 1.72 crore farmers have registered on e-NAM within the catchment area of 1,000 mandis which are integrated on the platform. The agricultural produce trade with a value of ₹1.82-lakh crore so far has been recorded on e-NAM platform.
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