The amended guidelines of SMAM envisages granting up to 100% of the cost of agricultural drones or Rs. 10 lakhs, whichever is less, as a grant for the purchase of drones by FMTTIs, ICAR institutes, KVKs and SAUs. In a major boost to promote the use of drones in agriculture in India, the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has issued guidelines to make drone technology affordable to the stakeholders of this sector. The guidelines of Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) have been amended which envisages granting up to 100 percent of the cost of agricultural drones or Rs. 10 lakhs, whichever is less, as a grant for the purchase of drones by the Farm Machinery Training & Testing Institutes, ICAR institutes, Krishi Vigyan Kendra’s and State Agriculture Universities (SAU) for taking up large scale demonstrations of this technology on the farmers’ fields. The farmer producers’ organisations (FPOs) would be eligible to receive grants up to 75 percent of the cost of agricultural drones for its demonstrations on the farmers’ fields. According to the ministry, a contingency expenditure of Rs. 6000 per hectare would be provided to implementing agencies that do not want to purchase drones but will hire drones for demonstrations from custom hiring centres, Hi-tech Hubs, drone manufacturers and start-ups. The contingent expenditure to implementing agencies that purchase drones for drone demonstrations would be limited to Rs. 3000 per hectare. The financial assistance and grants would be available until March 31, 2023.
In order to provide agricultural services through drone application, 40 per cent of the basic cost of drone and its attachments or Rs.4 lakh, whichever less would be available as financial assistance for drone purchase by existing custom hiring centres which are set up by cooperative societies of farmers, FPOs and rural entrepreneurs. The new CHCs or the Hi-tech Hubs that will be established by the cooperative societies of farmers, FPOs and rural entrepreneurs with financial assistance from SMAM, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) or any other schemes can also include drones as one of the machines along with other agricultural machines in the projects of CHCs/Hi-tech Hubs, the new guidelines read.