Sop To Farmers For Purchase Of Kisan Drones

Vijayawada:The Andhra Pradesh government has announced a sop to famers for purchase of drones by reducing the initial payment to Rs 2 lakh from the nearly Rs 5 lakh per unit.

The government intends to promote the use of drones, styled as Kisan Drones, for agriculture in a big way. The existing practice involved a payment of 50 per cent of the drone cost of Rs 4.90 lakh, while the remaining Rs 7.80 lakh out of the total cost of Rs 9.80 lakh for each drone was to be raised as bank loan. The state agriculture director has issued a circular with revised modalities for drone procurement.

As per the stipulations, a minimum of five farmers will form into a group and mobilise `2 lakh among themselves to place a purchase order to the manufacturer to get a drone.

The group of farmers will obtain nearly 80 per cent of the total cost of the drone -- `7.80 lakh -- from the bankers under the Agri Infrastructure Fund. The group of farmers will later get back 80 per cent of the total cost of the drone as governmental subsidy.

The programme to promote use of Kisan Drones in the farming sector is being taken up under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana with the funding being shared in the ratio of 60:40 by the Centre and AP respectively.

The state government, meanwhile, took steps to deploy 875 drones across the state. Out of these, nearly 550 drones are functional and the others would be fielded by the end of July.

With the farmers now busy with the preparatory works for the Kharif season, the drones can be used for sowing of seeds by way of spraying them evenly in the fields. This seeding process can be taken up for paddy and crops like maize, cotton, chilli, millets etc.

Kisan drones can also be used for spraying nutrients and pesticides in the agricultural fields under cultivation. An agriculture official said, “Farmers are happy over the government's support. We expect more farmers to buy drones for their farming work.”