Marut Dronetech’s Agricopter receives MANAGE RKVY-RAFTAAR grant
Hyderabad-based company's agri-tech solution helps reducing farming costs, improving crop yield there by raising farm incomes
Hyderabad: Agricopter, part of Marut Dronetech, received RKVY-RAFTAAR (Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana-Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied sector Rejuvenation) grant of Rs 20 lakh for its agri-tech solution. MANAGE-CIA, Centre for Innovation and Agripreneurship, is the central government’s knowledge partner in implementation of the scheme.
Agricopter visualises a farmer-centric precision agriculture solution, which works at scale with primary emphasis on reducing farming costs, improving crop yield there by raising farm incomes. Further in its work, it collaborates with research institutes to ensure all its products and processes are backed by rigorous scientific research.
The company custom builds drones to fulfil various services such as imaging, spraying, pollination and seeding and combine these with scientifically established protocols to arrive at most optimal solutions. Till date, Agricopter has worked on nearly 5,700 hectares of farms with more than 8,900 drone flight hours taking its technologies to farmers.
Solutions are built on farm-level data, facilitated by drone imaging and internet of things coupled with AI-powered data for early pest detection and customised crop advisory. This helps farmers prevent crop losses and manage risks effectively.
Prem Kumar Vislawath, founder and CEO of Marut Dronetech said, ‘Agricopter is our answer to our country’s vision of doubling farmer’s income. While taking a closer look at the agriculture sector, we have realised that the main problems are input costs (which remain high, in spite of subsidisation), unpredictable labour shortages and near zero upgradation of techniques & methodologies.”
“We have then built our solutions on lines to address these. We have partnered with research institutes – ICRISAT, PJTSAU, RICH – to develop standard operating procedures for drone spraying and image-based, AI driven diagnosis (based on phenotyping),” he added.
Dr Saravanan Raj, director (Agricultural Extension) of MANAGE and CEO of Centre for Innovation and Agripreneurship says ‘Through MANAGE-CIA, we aim to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in the agricultural sector. We value our startups and help them to survive the tides of uncertainty by offering a comprehensive set of benefits. Agricopter fits in with our values and outlook for the space. We are excited to see how they progress and happy to add our support to their journey.’
The company is working on crops such as paddy, cotton, red gram, groundnut, soybean, which cover over 90 per cent of Telangana’s cultivated area. In the next few years, the company is focusing on extending technology to other crops and reaching new geographies for making India’s vision of doubling farmer’s income a reality. Agricopter and PJTSAT, ICRISAT have recently received permissions from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation for field trials.
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