'Drone Yatra' has been started to educate farmers about spraying pesticides using drones. Renowned Swiss agrochemical Syngenta started this 'yatra' on Friday. Under this, 'Drone Yatra' of 10,000 kms will be done in 13 states. The company has also announced the world's first biodiversity sensor technology. The technology has been developed in partnership with IIT Ropar, Punjab and the Fraunhofer Institute, Germany. Its purpose is to suggest farmers to cultivate suitable crops.
This sensor will be tested in the fields of farmers in Europe and India this year. The company said it also plans to launch the Grower app in India by the end of this month to empower smallholder farmers by providing digital agronomy advice in different languages on nine crops, including cotton, wheat, rice and maize.
The new initiative was announced by Sushil Kumar, Country Head and Managing Director, Syngenta India, and Firoz Sheikh, Chief Information and Digital Officer, Syngenta Group.
Sushil Kumar said that the purpose of Drone Yatra is to create awareness about the use of drones in agriculture. Under the yatra, a van will travel a distance of 10,000 km to reach 10,000 farmers. He said the van will start from Maharashtra and travel to Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. He said that the commercial launch of drones for spraying insecticides will be done in rice, cotton and soybean crops by the end of this month.
Syngenta is the first private firm that has received approval from the Central Board of Insecticides (CIB) to use drones to spray 'Amister' on paddy to protect the crop from fungal infections. The company says that it has already tested the efficiency of the drone. The awareness campaign through Drone Yatra will not only educate the farmers about the new technology, but will also help the company to take feedback and inputs from the farmers.