New Delhi, April 25: Indian agricultural drone manufacturer IoTechWorld Avigation sold about 500 drones last financial year and it aims to increase its sales to nearly 3,000 in the current year 2023-24.
Established in 2017, the drone manufacturer, which is planning expansion in product offerings, intends to leverage its network across India and enter new markets in Russia, Africa, Brazil, and the SAARC region.
The company is already in talks with potential buyers in these countries.
“As we look ahead, we are setting an ambitious target of 3,000 drones this year. With our focus on innovative technology, competitive pricing, and effective marketing strategies, we are confident in our ability to meet this goal and continue to contribute to adopting drone technology in agriculture,” said Deepak Bhardwaj, Co-founder of IoTechWorld Avigation.
The company last week unveiled a new “A6” version of its popular agricultural drone “AGRIBOT”, a more compact and portable model than its predecessor.
The adoption of drones in the agriculture sector is considered highly economical for farmers since they can save a significant amount on spraying agrochemicals, fertilizers, and water while achieving significantly higher crop yields. The central government is also focused on the usage of drones in agriculture to help farmers.
There is also a provision for financial assistance by the central government for the purchase of agricultural drones.
“IoTechWorld has huge potential to expand its drone business in foreign markets, as many potential buyers in various countries are hesitant to import drones from China due to concerns about inadequate after-sales service and anti-China sentiment,” Anoop Upadhyay, another Co-founder and Director.
Taking another step towards realising the vision of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat, the central government had in 2021 approved the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for drones and drone components.
The Government launched Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes in varied sectors, including drones, to make Indian manufacturers globally competitive, attract investments, enhance exports, integrate India into the global supply chain and reduce dependency on imports.
IoTech said the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for the sector is going to be a game changer and India will soon become a major player in drone manufacturing globally. Its drones have a minimum of 70 per cent Made in India components, and their prices are expected to decrease as more are sold locally.
Recently, Indian government released Crop Specific “Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for the Application of Pesticides with Drones” in the public domain for the guidance of farmers and other stakeholders.
According to the news report published in The Times of India, the SOPs, developed for application of different pesticides/ fungicides, will be used for 10 selected crops such as rice, maize, cotton, groundnut, pigeon pea, safflower, sesame, soybean, sugarcane and wheat.
Conventionally the farmer sprays his crops physically. Even with hired manual labour, this is a costly and time-consuming affair. In the manual spraying method, for 1-acre sugarcane, a farmer would spend around Rs 1000 on spraying labour charges along with 200 litres of water and a higher quantity of chemicals. Whereas drones help farmers to save capital and time.
(With agency ANI inputs)
