Business of Agriculture March April 2019 Edition | Page 14

The
government
has recognised
the potential
of drones to
be used as
platforms
to augment
the reach of
geographically
isolated bodies
such as the
Agricultural
Insurance
Company of
India
address claims at the scale of hundreds of thousands
of farmers have resulted in a broken system of
unclaimed insurance and disparate distribution. The
government has recognised the potential of drones
to be used as platforms to augment the reach of
geographically isolated bodies such as the Agricultural
Insurance Company of India (AIC). The Maharashtra
and Karnataka state governments have already used
or have plans in place to use drones to process claims
and assess damages post disasters and calamities.
Source: Skylark Drones solution
Source: Skylark Drones pilots in Andhra Pradesh
14 Business of Agriculture | March-April 2019 • Vol. V • Issue 2
Beyond the Horizon
Drones merely serve better data for stakeholders in
the ecosystem, the real value of drone flight, however,
is unlocked only upon designing solutions that use
the drone data for scaling applications mentioned
above. Early pilot projects have implemented scalable
systems to document the story of the crop and
build foundational frameworks for the community.
Start-ups, research organisations, and government
bodies will have to come together to tie technology,
knowledge, and society into an ecosystem that aims
to remove the systemic challenges that originate from
a lack of data and insight.
* Mughilan is the Co-founder and CEO of Skylark
Drones Pvt. Ltd. He has worked in leading aerospace
institutes on various types of UAS platforms ranging
from micro aerial vehicles, multi-rotors and fixed-
wing vehicles. He has won accolades from NASA
for best systems engineering used in the design and
development of UAVs.