DDG (Agricultural Education) Inaugurates Training Program on ‘Drones for Precision Agriculture’

10^th October 2022 , Rahuri

Centre for Advanced Agricultural Science and Technology for Climate Smart Agriculture and Water Management (CAAST-CSAWM) under the aegis of ICAR-National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP) organized a National Training Program entitled Drones for Precision Agriculture’ at its Central Campus, Rahuri during 10-14 October, 2022 at Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth (MPKV), Rahuri for capacity building of academicians, entrepreneurs, researchers, students, farmers and practitioners.

While inaugurating the program in hybrid mode as Chief Guest, Dr R.C. Agrawal, Deputy Director General (Agric. Education) and National Director, ICAR-NAHEP said that Country is now experiencing the Agriculture 4.0 phase that particularly emphasizes the use of digital technology; and opined that drones have assumed great importance in the age of digital technology. The application of drone technology has huge potential for saving and effective use of farm inputs particular crop nutrients, pesticides, water; and labor. Role of information technology is rapidly increasing in agriculture sector, he added. He further expressed that the use of artificial intelligence coupled with drones, sensors and internet of things (IoT) enabled devices will establish new bench marks in Indian agriculture. He urged CAAST, MPKV to organize such capacity building programs regularly and also to schedule workshop on "Drone Awareness" for senior officers of SAUs and ICAR Institutes in the country.

National Coordinator, ICAR-NAHEP (CAAST), Dr. Anuradha Agrawal while addressing as the Guest of Honor expressed the need of developing and refining drone technologies for various applications in agriculture including spraying, mapping; and identification of biotic and abiotic stresses. She appreciated the work of the CAAST project of MPKV, particularly the IoT enabled technologies for precision irrigation water management that are becoming popular amongst the farmers.

Dr. Pramod Rasal, Dean and Director of Instructions, MPKV, informed that various activities undertaken by CAAST, MPKV, Rahuri has benefitted students immensely, especially exposure to national and international training programs including those conducted abroad. He also appreciated the CAAST team for establishing the Drone Laboratory and establishing the DGCA approved ‘Remote Pilot Training Organization (RPTO)’.

Dr. Sunil Gorantiwar, Principal Investigator, CAAST-CSAWM remarked that one of the strong components of the CAAST project at MPKV is capacity building activities, wherein 109 capacity building activities in physical mode benefiting 9000+ participants, and 196 in  online mode benefiting 66,000+ participants from all over India and few abroad had been organized so far.

(Source: National Agricultural Higher Education Projet, ICAR)