Muhammad Luqman

Drone technology is revolutionizing agriculture across the globe, enhancing crop yields and reducing costs, reports WealthPK.

Unlike traditional farming ways, drones can cover larger areas and improve crop yields. Equipped with advanced sensors and cameras, drones enable precise application of fertilizers and pesticides. These unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) help in efficient crop monitoring, quick and precise application of fertilizers and pesticides, and identification of good soil for crop planting.

Owing to these advantages, farmers in more than 100 countries have adopted this smart technology in just a few decades. Besides the US and the European countries, Japan, China, and Korea are the leading users of agriculture drones. In China alone, 251,000 spraying drones were in operation last year, capable of covering approximately 178 million hectares of farmland.

This advanced farming method has also recently gained traction in developing countries such as India, Indonesia, Brazil, and the Philippines. Rapid adoption of UAVs for agriculture has helped the drone market to swell to $6 billion in a few years and is expected to reach the mark of $24 billion by the year 2032. Despite increased use of agriculture drones across the world, the farmers in Pakistan have not been able to benefit from this futuristic technology in a big way.

According to climate-smart agriculture experts, the absence of any legislation regarding the import and use of agriculture drones is the major hurdle to catching up with the world trends. “The use of agriculture drones in Pakistan is in its initial phase owing to the absence of concrete policies over the drone technology,” climate agriculture expert Muhammad Asim told WealthPK.

He said there were not more than 200 agriculture drones in Pakistan at the moment due to restrictions on their import. Muhammad Asim said the use of drones could help utilize pesticides for taller crops like sugarcane and maize, which was usually difficult to do manually. Lately, the Ministry of Aviation has finalized a set of regulations to register drones and unmanned aircraft, but the draft rules developed for the purpose have yet to be given the shape of a law with parliamentary approval.

The draft policy aims to regulate drone usage across Pakistan. Under these rules, all UAVs must be registered with the federal government. Under the proposed policy, the UAVs are classified into four categories based on their maximum take-off weight: category-I (up to 250 grams), category-II (250 grams to 10 kilograms), category-III (10kg to 25kg), and category-IV (25kg to 100kg). However, everything is not that doom and gloom.

Some plant protection companies in Pakistan have launched pilot schemes for promotion of agriculture drones by providing services to the farmers – though on limited scale. The Punjab Agriculture Department has also conducted successful experiments on drone technology usage in various parts of the province besides preparing standing operating procedures (SOPs) for the agriculture drone usage.

“The Punjab Agriculture Department will help the farmers benefit from this technology provided the federal government comes up with some comprehensive agriculture drone policy,” said Dr. Anjum Ali Buttar, consultant to the Punjab Agriculture Department. Under the recently launched Green Pakistan Initiative, the farmers are going to be facilitated in the adoption of drone technology for agriculture purposes.

Experts believe drone technology is poised to transform Pakistan's agriculture sector provided some comprehensive legislation to regulate the UAVs use is in place. Otherwise, Pakistan will not be able to offset the effects of the climate change that is taking its toll on the farming practices.

Credit: INP-WealthPk