New Delhi (05/07/2023): IFFCO(Indian Farm Forestry Development Cooperative), which is India’s largest multi-state cooperative society, will buy 2,500 drones that will be used by 5,000 selected entrepreneurs in rural India to spray fertiliser and chemicals, marking one of the largest such purchases by a plant chemical business.
IFFCO said in a statement, “To access the technical capabilities, manufacturing capacity, manufacturing process, quality processes, training curriculum, infrastructure IFFCO hired the Drone Federation of India, which then evaluated the specifications and mentioned that the technical specifications of agri drones being procured by IFFCO for spray of nano fertilisers are in accordance with industry standards.”
According to sources, IFFCO requested information from five vendors before selecting Drone Federation of India after an evaluation. More than 5,000 entrepreneurs in rural areas would receive free drones.
The entrepreneurs would be given sufficient training and supervision to operate the drones, with IFFCO covering all expenditures.
According to sources, drone pilots would be trained and certified at RPTO (Remote Pilot Training Organisation) locations authorised by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
According to the idea, each drone will spray nano urea over three acres of land in around half an hour on a single charge of the battery.
However, the battery provides a flight time of 18-22 minutes. The battery must be replaced every three sorties of around 20 minutes.One drone is intended to be able to spray nano fertilisers, water-soluble fertilisers, and nano DAP over 20 acres of land every day.
IFFCO stated that it had purchased 2,500 electric three-wheelers to transport drones, fertiliser, and related utilities to farms.IFFCO has also ordered tractor-mounted boom sprayers and tractor-mounted hose reel sprayers for nano fertiliser foliar spraying.
Agricultural sprayers and drones are used to apply nano fertilisers to diverse crops via foliar application. Drones and sprayers can be utilised for virtually any type of spray application.
