Technological change in Agriculture: From urban to rural path for Agridrones

Two main domains of Indian economy are agriculture and manufacturing. More than 50 percent of the total employment force directly, indirect depends on agriculture which contributes around 17-18 percent to the country’s GDP [1] from agriculture. Uncertainty in production, changing government policies, urbanization effects this percentage and an estimated drop in this work force would be 25.7 percent by 2050 [2]. With the challenges which are may or may not be controlled by human intervention but use of different machines and technology can work coping against those natural factors in one or another way. Unmanned Air Vehicles with sensors, a synonym for Flying Agriculture Networks is a new technology for agriculture is widely used for different chore in agriculture and prove their efficiency to improve the production. This technological transformation supports the farming communities for improvement, can become a strong key to feed the growing population of world. With increasing availability of affordable systems, use of smart systems may boost the production towards rising consumer expectation and cares the rapid growth of agriculture production. India accounted for 55 per cent market share of the US$ 200-250 billion global services sourcing business in 2019-20 [3], which is the largest sourcing destination; on the other hand, India accounted for only 8 percent for smart agriculture devices. The use of technology in India for agriculture is a big challenge due to traditional believes, social and political issues. This paper survey is about Indian perspective for the use of FANET in agriculture, their challenges, and opportunities. A detailed survey is conducted with 2000 farmers across India for availability and challenges facing them to use technology. The Paper is also discussing Government support, initiatives in the last few years and current reports for use of UAV’s in Indian Agriculture.