Business of Agriculture March April 2019 Edition | Page 12

HELPING THE CROP AND THE COMMUNITY IN
INDIAN AGRICULTURE
THROUGH DRONE SOLUTIONS
By: T.R. Mughilan *
T
Consistent
pursuit of
surplus-driven
growth has
lead to land
parcels in many
parts of India
reaching their
productivity
threshold
and becoming
progressively
less productive
and cultivable
he importance of agriculture in India is one
of those facts that receives widespread
acknowledgement primarily due to the scale
of its influence. Over half of the Indian population and
almost 3/4th of all households depend on agriculture
for their livelihood, and with good reason. Amongst
all the nations in the world, India dedicates more than
four times the global average of its land to grow crops.
Chances are that the writer, readers, and editors of
this article are direct descendants from farmers or
are actively engaged in farming.
agriculture has about 60,000 crores in non-performing
assets (NPAs). While the reasons for this are complex,
multi-layered, and vast, resulting from factors that
go beyond just the ecological such as: the socio-
economic; and political. The following content of the
article attempts to focus on aspects of the age-old
problems that new-age technology can help to solve,
with a particular focus on drone-based solutions for
the most important stakeholders in the grand scheme
of things such as: the crop; and the community.
Drone-based Solutions for the
Crops
From the day a seed is sown to the
day the crop is harvested, a majority
of stakeholders cannot track metrics
such as: the health; count; and growth
patterns. The broad-ranging term that
is used to define this is “traceability”.
Bodies like the Food and Agricultural
Organisation (FAO) of the United
Nations have made it their inherent goal
to pursue and implement traceability
in global supply chains especially in
agriculture.
The Indian agricultural output has gone through
drastic and amazing transformational jumps. We
have an agricultural trade surplus amongst nations
that grow a wide range of crops for international
consumption.
However, the growth that Indian agriculture has
seen is not without its caveats. Consistent pursuit of
surplus-driven growth has lead to land parcels in many
parts of India reaching their productivity threshold
and becoming progressively less productive and
cultivable. States all over the country are feeling the
pinch of decreasing sustainability of practices used
in the decades since independence. Farmlands are
among the worst performing assets nationwide as
is evidenced by reports from the RBI indicating that
12 Business of Agriculture | March-April 2019 • Vol. V • Issue 2
The UN defines traceability as “The ability to identify
and trace the history, distribution, location and
application of products, parts and materials, to ensure
the reliability of sustainability claims, in the areas of
human rights, labour (including health and safety), the
environment and anti-corruption.”
Traceability is important for a number of reasons if
implemented in its truest sense, it:
• Increases the confidence of the consumer;
• Improves functions of agribusiness entities such
as: forecasting; record keeping; and response
time;