Budget 2022: Govt to promote use of drones as a service
Premium- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharamana said Drone Shakti project will be promoted to facilitate application and use of drones as service
Use of drones will be promoted for crop assessment, spraying of insecticides and nutrients, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday. Presenting the Union Budget for FY23 in Lok Sabha, the minister said a Drone Shakti project will be promoted to facilitate application and use of drones as a service.
Digitization of land records will be carried out and startups and rural enterprises that are relevant to farm produce value chain will be provided financial assistance and IT-based support, she added.
“The budget announced that start-ups will be promoted for drone shakti to make drones a service. This will help widen the scope of services for start-ups in India," said Vimal Nadar, Head of Research, Colliers India.
Early this week, the union ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare amended the guidelines of the sub-mission on agricultural mechanization to promote use of drones in agriculture. The new guidelines will provide subsidies of up to 10% of the cost of drones or ₹10 lakh, whichever is higher to purchase drones. Also, under the new drone rules 2021, the payload capacity for drones to be used in farming was increased from 300 kg to 500 kg in August 2021.
Use of drones in farming in India is picking up. Several states are examining technical and safety parameters to allow application of drones. Last week, the Rajasthan government carried out a pilot on the outskirts of Jaipur where drones were used to spray fertilizers on crops.
In September 2021, India had approved a PLI scheme for manufacturing drones and drone components in India. According to a Research and markets report, the drone market in India is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20.9% during 2020-2026.
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