Subsidy for Purchase of Drones

On January 29, 2022 Union Agriculture Ministry announced the provision of subsidy on the purchase of drones. Ministry has revised the guidelines of Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) under which subsidy of 40-100% will be provided on purchase of drones. Through this subsidy the ministry mainly intends to promote the use of drones thus leading to farm mechanization. Use of drones will help the farmers in crop disease identification, control of water, surveying, soil mapping, etc. This will induce the use of technology in regular farming techniques and will thus help the farmers in increasing their farm outputs.

Overview:

Objectives and Benefits:

• Main objective of this initiative is to promote the use of drones in farming practices.
• It intends to induce technology in regular farming activities.
• Use of drones will help the farmers with crop disease identification, control of water, surveying, soil mapping, etc.
• Subsidy on purchase of drones will attract more farmers and farming institutions to purchase farm drones.
• More demand of drones will thereby encourage domestic production of drones.
• This initiative aims at increasing the farm productivity.
• It intends to ensure welfare of farmers through a perfect mix of technology in agriculture.
• It will lead to overall development of the agriculture sector.

Subsidy/ Grant under the Initiative:

100% subsidy/ grant or Rs 10 lakhs whichever is less, on the purchase of drones to –

• Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institutes, Krishi Vigyan Kendras and State Agriculture Universities for taking up large scale demonstrations of this technology on the farmers fields.

50% subsidy/ grant or up to Rs 5 lakhs on the purchase of drones to –

• Agriculture graduates establishing Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs)

40% subsidy/ grant or up to Rs 4 lakhs on the purchase of drones to –

• Existing CHCs/ New ones set up by Cooperative Society of Farmers, FPOs and Rural Entrepreneurs.

75% subsidy to –

• FPOs using the drones for demonstration purpose.

Key Points:

• Union Agriculture Ministry revised the guidelines of Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) and announced the provision of subsidy on the purchase of drones.
• This announcement was made on January 29, 2022.
• Under this initiative, subsidy of 40-100% will be provided on purchase of drones.
• Various farming institutions, universities, organizations will be provided with this subsidy.
• These institutions will demonstrate the operation of drones and explain its uses to the farmers on their fields.
• Farmers will be able to see the use of drones in various activities like spraying pesticides, checking water levels, etc.
• The institutions/ universities/ organizations demonstrating the operation of drones will have to comply the rules and SOPs made by the ministry.
• This initiative will encourage the use of drones by the farmers.
• Use of drones will help the farmers in crop disease identification, control of water, surveying, soil mapping, etc.
• The use of drones will lead to farm mechanization thereby increasing farm productivity.
• This initiative will help the farmers in increasing their farm outputs and their farm income thus ensuring their long term welfare.