Agricopter is awarded the MANAGE RKVY-RAFTAAR grant of Rs 20 L for its Agri-tech solutions

Agricopter, a brand of Marut Dronetech, announces the award of RVKY-RAFTAAR (Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana – Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied sector Rejuvenation) grant for its innovative and research-backed solutions in the agri-tech space.

Agricopter visualises a farmer-centric precision agriculture solution that works at scale with primary emphasis on reducing farming costs, improving crop yield thereby raising farm incomes. The core belief of Agricopter is that technology should lead to a better society and in the process, it has developed Agri Automation and Agri Intelligence solutions leveraging cutting-edge Drone, AI, and IoT technologies. Further, in its work, Agricopter collaborates with premier research institutes to ensure all its products and processes are backed by rigorous scientific research. 

Agricopter thanks MANAGE for its support to their efforts in improving the agricultural space in the country. They intend to use the support to further their vision of ‘Building sustainable solutions and building an Agri-tech ecosystem’ that benefits all stakeholders, primarily the farmers and environment.

MANAGE-CIA, Centre for Innovation and Agripreneurship, is the central government’s knowledge partner in the implementation of RKVY-RAFTAAR Scheme. It aims to bring together the agribusiness expertise and provide one stop solution to all the agribusiness requirements and upscale startups.

Agricopter’s work at a Glance:

Agricopter is India’s pioneer in developing Agri Automation and Agri Intelligence solutions. Their mission is to ‘adapt and adopt cutting edge technology to fulfill the agricultural ambition of our Nation – 2x Farmer’s income, while ensuring that it reduces the burden on health of Environment and Farmer.’

They custom build top-notch drones to fulfill various services like imaging, spraying, pollination, and seeding and combine these with scientifically established protocols to arrive at the most optimal solutions. In the process, they have achieved reduced input applications and improved farm operational efficiency.

They build their solutions on farm level data, facilitated by drone imaging and IoT coupled with AI-powered data cruncher for early pests detection, customised crop advisory, and much more. This helps farmers prevent crop losses and manage risks effectively. Till date, Agricopter has worked on nearly 5700 hectares of farms with more than 8900 drone flight hours taking its technologies to farmers.

Prem Kumar Vislawath, founder and CEO of Marut Dronetech says, ‘Agricopter is our answer to our country’s vision of doubling farmer’s income. While taking a closer look at the agriculture sector, we have realised that the main problems are input costs (which remain high, in spite of subsidization), unpredictable labour shortages and near zero up-gradation of techniques & methodologies. We have then built our solutions on lines to address these. We have partnered with research institutes – ICRISAT, PJTSAU, RICH – to develop SoPs for drone spraying and image-based, AI driven diagnosis (based on phenotyping).’

Agrciopter, is India’s first company to establish scientifically researched crop-specific protocols for UAV applications in agriculture. They have developed Automation (spraying quantities, spraying pattern, seeding and others) in association with PJTSAU; and Intelligence solutions (pest infestation identification, nutrient deficiencies identification and others), with ICRISAT. Agricopter and PJTSAT, ICRISAT have recently received permissions from DGCA for field trials.

Dr Saravanan Raj, Director (Agricultural Extension) of MANAGE and CEO of Centre for Innovation and Agripreneurship says ‘Through MANAGE-CIA, we aim to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in the Agricultural sector. We value our startups and help them to survive the tides of uncertainty by offering a comprehensive set of benefits. Agricopter fits in with our values and outlook for the space. We are excited to see how they progress and happy to add our support to their journey.’

Crops Agricopter is working with presently include Paddy, Cotton, Redgram, Groundnut, Soybean – which cover over 90% of Telangana’s cultivated area. In next few years, Agricopter is focussing on extending technology to other crops and reach new geographies for making India’s vision of Doubling Farmer’s Income a reality. 

Agricopter wishes to express its gratitude to each and every stakeholder supporting in its mission. As were the efforts put in, the extent of mission is also massive. Agricopter realises that this could be achieved only through collaborative efforts. Inline, Agricopter would like to welcome research institutes, agri entrepreneurs, FPOs, individuals and other stakeholders to collaborate and work together for making farming profitable and productive.