Revolutionizing Indian Agriculture with Drones: A Comprehensive Review of Applications, Challenges and Future Prospects

Abstract

Indian agriculture contributes to the GDP, but our nation still needs to improve productivity and efficiency to the fullest extent possible. Numerous aspects and concerns need to be identified, supported, and equipped with solutions. Now agriculture sector is the fastest-growing sector, which is faced with several issues, one of which is the lack of labour for farming. Some additional issues or challenges are extreme weather conditions, inadequate and ineffective fertilizer application, infection, illnesses, allergies, and other health issues brought on by chemical applications (fungicide, pesticide, insecticide, etc.). Drones, also called Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), have developed remarkably in recent years. Common applications of drones are Pesticide application, soil sampling and fertilizing, farm animal observation, real-time aerial imagery, sensor data collection, etc. These drones have been primarily created to speed up, boost productivity, and effectively utilize agricultural resources. The government is working toward a liberalized policy to encourage drones and also provide institutions, individual farmers, and businesses with significant financial incentives to buy and utilize or build drones. If farmers start to trust drones for spray-related tasks, there's a strong chance their use will be expanded to other revolutionary use cases as well, which will be beneficial for Indian agriculture.