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Use of Drones in Agriculture

Posted on February 22, 2021 by admin1  676

In News-The Ministry of Civil Aviation and Directorate General of Civil Aviation has granted conditional exemption for Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) usage to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoAFW)

Key Highlights

  • This will allow MoAFW to use drones for remote sensing data collection in agricultural areas of 100 districts of the country for gram panchayat level yield estimation, under PMFBY.
  • The conditional exemption granted will be valid for one year from the date of issue of the permission letter or until the operationalisation of the Digital Sky Platform, whichever is earlier.
  • This exemption shall be valid only if all conditions and limitations are strictly adhered to.
  • Even though the conditional exemption has been given to MoAFW, it still needs to obtain necessary clearances from the local administration, the defence ministry, home ministry, Indian Air Force and Airports Authority of India.
  • Significance – It would help in assessing crop area estimation and losses due to localized calamities and resolving yield disputes between different stakeholders under the scheme.

‘Digital Sky Platform’

  • The ‘Digital Sky Platform’ is a first of its kind central portal that implements “no permission, no take-off” (NPNT).
    • It is a novel system of software-based self-enforcement to minimize deviations from the Civil Aviation Regulations in the country.
  • The Platform was launched on December 1, 2018, allowing nano drones in India to start flying legally with immediate effect.
  • Operators and pilots are, however, required to register on the Digital Sky’ portal for flying micro and above categories of drones.
     

About Drone

  • Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, are aircraft either controlled by ‘pilots’ from the ground or increasingly, autonomously following a pre-programmed mission. 
  • There are three subsets of Unmanned Aircraft- Remotely Piloted Aircraft, Autonomous Aircraft and Model Aircraft.
    • Remotely Piloted Aircraft consists of remote pilot station(s), the required command and control links and any other components, as specified in the type design.

Advantages of Using a drone in Agriculture:

  • Enhanced Production – The drone survey helps farmers calculate the precise land size, segment the various crops, and indulge in soil mapping.
    • The farmer can improve production capabilities through comprehensive irrigation planning, adequate monitoring of crop health, increased knowledge about soil health, and adaptation to environmental changes.
  • Effective and Adaptive Techniques – Drone usage results in regular updates to farmers about their crops and helps develop strengthened farming techniques. They can adapt to weather conditions and allocate resources without any wastage.
  • Greater safety of farmers – It is safer and more convenient for farmers to use drones to spray pesticides in terrains challenging to reach, infected areas, taller crops, and power lines.
    •  It also helps farmers prevent spraying the crops, which leads to less pollution and chemicals in the soil.
  • Useful for Insurance claims –  Farmers use the data captured through drones to claim crop insurance in case of any damages. They even calculate risks/losses associated with the land while being insured
    •  Agricultural insurance sectors use Agri-drones for efficient and trustworthy data.

Disadvantages/Challenges

  • Flight Time and Flight Range- Most of the drones have a short flight time of between 20 minutes to an hour. This limits the acreage that it can cover for every charge.
  • Initial Cost of Purchase- Drones with the features that qualify them for use in agriculture are quite costly.
  • Weather Dependent-  Drones are more vulnerable to weather conditions when contrasted to traditional aircraft. For example, if the climatic conditions are unfavourable, the UAV will not manoeuvre appropriately or gather reliable data or imagery.
  • Knowledge and Skill- The images require analysis by skilled and knowledgeable personnel for them to translate any useful information therefore it becomes challenging for farmers to understand its functionalities.

About Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY):

  • The flagship crop insurance scheme was launched on 13th January 2016, in line with the One Nation-One Scheme theme.
  • It is globally the largest crop insurance scheme in terms of farmer participation and 3rd largest in terms of premium.
  • The scheme extends coverage for the entire cropping cycle from pre-sowing to post-harvest including coverage for losses arising out of prevented sowing and mid-season adversities.
  •  Over 5.5 crore farmer applications are received on a year-on-year basis.
  • It replaced the existing National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) and its modified version (MNAIS).

Key Features –

  • There is no upper limit on Government subsidy.
  • The premium rates to be paid by farmers are very low, and the Government pays a balance premium to provide full insured amounts to the farmers.
  • The prescribed premium is 2% to be paid by farmers for all Kharif crops and 1.5% for all rabi crops.
    • In the case of annual commercial and horticultural crops, the premium is 5%.
  • Premium cost over and above the farmer share is equally subsidised by States and the Center.
  • However, the Centre’s share is 90% of the premium subsidy for the Northeastern States to promote the uptake in the region.
  • Earlier, there was a provision of capping the premium rate, which resulted in low claims being paid to farmers, so it was removed and farmers will get a claim against full sum insured without any reduction.
  • Use of Technology-
    • Integration of land records with the PMFBY portal.
    • Crop Insurance mobile app for easy enrolment of farmers.
    • Farmers can report crop loss within 72 hours of the occurrence of any event through the App, Common Service Centres (CSCs) or the nearest agriculture officer.
    • Claim benefit is then provided electronically into the bank accounts of the eligible farmer.
    • Usage of satellite imagery, remote-sensing technology, drones, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to assess crop losses.

Objectives & significance-

  • To provide insurance coverage and financial support to the farmers in the event of failure of any of the notified crops as a result of natural calamities, pests and diseases.
  • It covers yield losses, losses arising out of prevented sowing due to adverse weather conditions, post-harvest losses and losses due to certain localized problems like hailstorms, landslides and flooding.
  • To stabilise the income of farmers to ensure their continuance in farming.
  • To encourage farmers to adopt innovative and modern agricultural practices.
  • To ensure the flow of credit to the agriculture sector.

Revamped PMFBY (PMFBY 2.0):

  • Over the past 5 years, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has worked extensively towards revamping the PMFBY scheme by relooking at the structural, logistical, and other challenges.
  • Under the revamped PMFBY, the scheme is made voluntary for all farmers.
  • The states have also been provided flexibility to rationalise the sum insured so that adequate benefit can be availed by farmers.
  • The average sum insured per hectare has increased from Rs. 15,100 during the pre-PMFBY schemes to Rs. 40,700 under PMFBY.
  • The allocation of work to insurance companies in a cluster has been set at three years for ensuring proper infrastructure creation, including setting up of stratified grievance redressal mechanism.

Achievements

  • Claims worth Rs. 90,000 crore have so far been disbursed to farmers since the launch of the scheme.
  • The Aadhaar seeding has helped in speedy claim settlement directly into the farmer accounts.
  • Even during the Covid-19 lockdown period, nearly 70 lakh farmers benefitted and claims worth Rs. 8,741.30 crore were transferred.

Source :TOI

 
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