The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare had released a memorandum on 18th April 2022, listing interim approved pesticides to be used for spraying by a drone.

The registered pesticide formulations comprising of insecticides, fungicides and plant growth regulators (PGR’s) (including bio-pesticides and botanical pesticides) which otherwise are permitted to be sprayed manually by knapsack sprayers in India have been provisionally approved for commercial use through drones for a period of 2 years.

The crop protection industry has been seeking an extension of the approval so that the ongoing impetus to the use of Drones in agriculture shall continue. The Ministry of Agriculture has now given an extension of one year, i.e. up to 18th April 2025.

Commenting on the development, Durgesh Chandra, Secretary General, CropLife India shared, “CropLife India welcomes the move by the Ministry and feels that this will go a long way in boosting the agrochemical infrastructure and specially provide a boost to the Drone Didi scheme. The Drone technology helps in immense water savings along with being a step towards precision agriculture”.

CropLife India, as the largest among all Indian agrochemical industry associations; and has been advocating the need for fast tracking drone’s application for spraying of agrochemicals since the year 2019. The discussions held during the Virtual Conference on Drones Application Technology in Spraying for Crop Protection was organized on 29th July 2020 and the Technical Discussion Paper on Drone Usage for Agrochemical Spraying was greatly appreciated in the consultation process.

“CropLife India was part of the Expert Committee formed by the Government of India for drafting of SOP for applying pesticides for crop protection and soil nutrients using drones with help from Japan's Drone Guidelines,” Chandra added.