Hyderabad: Farmers get hands-on training on drone-tech

Hyderabad: The use of drones in agriculture has slowly gained momentum in the last couple of years with many startups looking to venture into this space. While several startups are offering these services, not many are looking at the ground reality of providing the right training to use these drones to farmers. A Hyderabad-based startup […]

Hyderabad: The use of drones in agriculture has slowly gained momentum in the last couple of years with many startups looking to venture into this space. While several startups are offering these services, not many are looking at the ground reality of providing the right training to use these drones to farmers. A Hyderabad-based startup is solving this problem one step at a time.

BluBot Robotics is not just designing and offering drones to the farmers but through its modules is training local entrepreneurs in operating these machines in the sky. Armed with a career as an ad filmmaker, Haripriya Reddy chose to venture into this space after she witnessed the hardships farmers face when they manually spray pesticides on large farmlands.

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“Not just time consuming, it also leads to uneven spread of the chemical which could be harmful to the crop. So, we thought of introducing drone technology to solve this problem but then realised that not all farmers are qualified enough to operate the drones and there was no proper awareness,” says Haripriya who runs the startup along with her husband.

The company created an app called ‘Krishi Yantra’ wherein users can place an order for a drone that can be used for spraying and along with the gadget, a drone pilot is also provided. Making it accessible to the farmers, locals have been trained in different districts to operate the drones as and when the order is placed. The training of drone pilots is done free of cost and in Khammam alone, it has trained 25 people and plans to expand this to districts like Nizamabad.

The startup, which is part of WEHub, is also looking at setting up a manufacturing unit by next year. Currently, it has an assembly unit where the drones are made and according to Haripriya, locally trained youth are not just trained in operating the drones but also in repair and service.

“Our drones can spray pesticides on 30 acres of land in one day and cover one acre in 65 minutes. Other than pesticide spraying, seed dropping mechanism is also provided. We are also focusing on hiring women who can be trained in drone flying,” adds Haripriya.

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