Financial support by govt. of India to promote drones in agriculture

In a major boost to promote precision farming in India, the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has issued guidelines to make drone technology affordable to the stakeholders of this sector. The guidelines of “Sub- Mission on Agricultural Mechanization” (SMAM) have been amended which envisages granting up to 100% of the cost of agriculture drone or INR10 lakhs, whichever is less, as grant for purchase of drones by the Farm Machinery Training & Testing Institutes, ICAR institutes, Krishi Vigyan Kendras and State Agriculture Universities for taking up large scale demonstrations of this technology on the farmers’ fields.

The Farmers Producers Organizations (FPOs) would be eligible to receive grant up to 75% of the cost of agriculture drone for its demonstrations on the farmers’ fields.

A contingency expenditure of Rs.6000 per hectare would be provided to implementing agencies that do not want to purchase drones but will hire drones for demonstrations from Custom Hiring Centres, Hi-tech Hubs, Drone Manufacturers and Start- Ups. The contingent expenditure to implementing agencies that purchase drones for drone demonstrations would be limited to Rs.3000 per hectare. The financial assistance and grants would be available until March 31, 2023.

In order to provide agricultural services through drone application, 40% of the basic cost of drone and its attachments or Rs.4 lakhs, whichever less would be available as financial assistance for drone purchase by existing Custom Hiring Centers which are set up by Cooperative Society of Farmers, FPOs and Rural entrepreneurs. The new CHCs or the Hi-tech Hubs that will be established by the Cooperative Societies of Farmers, FPOs and Rural entrepreneurs with financial assistance from SMAM, RKVY or any other Schemes can also include Drone as one of the machines along with other agricultural machines in the projects of CHCs/Hi-tech Hubs. Agriculture graduates establishing Custom Hiring Centers would be eligible to receive 50% of the basic cost of drone and its attachments or up to Rs.5 lakhs in grant support for drone purchases. Rural entrepreneurs should have passed class tenth examination or its equivalent from a recognized Board; and should have remote pilot license from Institute specified by the Director General of Civil Aviation(DGCA) or from any authorized remote pilot training organization.

The subsidized purchase of agriculture drones for CHCs/Hi-tech Hubs will make the technology affordable, resulting in their widespread adoption. This would make drones more accessible to the common man in India and will also significantly encourage domestic drone production.

The drone operations are being permitted by Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) through the conditional exemption route. MoCA has published ‘Drone Rules 2021’ vide GSR No. 589(E) dated 25th August 2021 to regulate the use and operation of Drones in India. The Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare has also brought out Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for use of Drone application with pesticides for crop protection in agricultural, forestry, non-cropped areas, etc. and for Drone Application in Spraying for Soil and Crop Nutrients. https://static.pib.gov.in

Drone swarm control solution shines in DARPA field exercise

Raytheon Intelligence & Space recently supported the fifth OFFensive Swarm- Enabled Tactics, or OFFSET, DARPA program field exercise. Using integrated swarm technology developed by a Raytheon BBN-led team, a single operator successfully controlled a swarm— composed of 130 physical drone platforms and 30 simulated drone platforms—both indoors and outdoors in an urban setting. During the exercise, the team used a combination of commercial off-the-shelf and custom-built hardware and software to deliver swarm autonomy. This enabled a single or small group of operators to direct and manage the activities of a large swarm of autonomous air and ground vehicles with minimal training. www. raytheonintelligenceandspace.com

AUS bags Survey of India contract to map Haryana, India

AUS (Aarav Unmanned Systems wins a Large-Scale Mapping Project from the Survey of India (SoI). The company has bagged the $2 million mandate to deploy nearly 44 drones to map the entire state of Haryana covering roughly 32000 sq km. Under this project, AUS will deploy its proprietary survey grade drones to ensure accurate data capturing which will further be processed by the survey of India to update the revenue maps and GIS database by digitizing the land records. https://aus.co.in

Department 13 drone technology

Department 13 has commenced work with another national critical infrastructure organization in Australia, to enable the safe and controlled use of autonomous drone capabilities at multiple sites and drive new and innovative business outcomes from capabilities and intelligence delivered by the drones and its operating system. Integrating Department 13’s specialized drone technology into the site’s current operations is elevating safety and security postures and enabling a range of autonomous duties to be conducted by the new drone fleet. The capabilities of the system that will further extend into, support, and innovate a range of areas in the organization like never before.

Supporting the organization through the entire technology integration, Department 13 will help plan and manage all mandatory compliance work required by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations at the site. https://department13.com