Buoyed by the exponential growth potential of the drone industry, leading Kisan Drone (Agricultural Drone) manufacturer IoTechWorld Avigation today said it is aiming for multi-fold growth in both values and volume terms, in the current fiscal. The Gurugram-headquartered company is targeting to sell more than 1,000 Kisan Drones during 2022-23 and is aiming to capture lion’s share in Kisan Drone market, which is likely to be Rs 5000 crore by 2025-26.
To fund its growth ambitions, India’s first type certified drone manufacturer is in advanced talks with investors to raise funds, which will be utilised for expansion. Last year, the company raised around Rs 30 crore from a leading agrochemical company, Dhanuka Agritech. The company has been selected for the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for drone and drone components.
IoTechWorld Avigation’s flagship drone ‘AGRIBOT’ is a multi-purpose Kisan drone supporting spraying, granule broadcasting and crop health monitoring. Underlining the growth plan, Deepak Bhardwaj and Anoop Upadhyay, co-founders of IoTechWorld Avigation explained the key initiatives undertaken by the drone tech company. The company is working to indigenise all components within 1-2 years. it has conducted many campaigns and Drone Yatra of 15,000 KM across India for educating farmers on the benefits of drones in agriculture.
You may also like to read: Harnessing the power of drones for sustainable agriculture
In order to generate employment, IoTechWorld Avigation is developing village-level entrepreneurs and service partners. The company has its own centres in 12 states which is helping farmers. A new entrepreneur is able to avail finance (loans) benefits under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) run by Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
IoTechWorld has launched its DRASS mobile app which is helping new entrepreneurs in getting business and small and marginal farmers in availing drawing services. The company has launched ‘Bike back Drone’ model and new Lithium Ion batteries to reduce the operating cost of drones and increase mobility. The company is opening RPTO (Remote Pilot Training Organisation) with different state governments. This will offer a pilot license course at a very low cost.
You may also like to read: Things you need to know about Govt initiatives for application of drones in agriculture
Many ICAR institutes, state agriculture universities (SAUs) and Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), have procured drones from the company and now it is enabling them so that they can give demonstrations and can educate the local farmers. It is working with almost all major crop protection chemical manufacturing companies and working to increase the bio-efficacy of all plant protection chemicals every day.
Multi-lingual — Hindi, Punjabi, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Kannad — based user interface has been developed for ease of use by farmer friends. Subsidy ranging from 40-100 per cent is being provided by the Government for faster adoption of Kisan Drones. “Clearly, the growth opportunity is humungous and IoTechWorld Avigation for its pioneering efforts and vision is likely to gain major of the Kisan Drone market,” the founders added. As per a recent report by FICCI–EY, the drone market is likely to become $30 billion by 2030. The agricultural drone market is estimated to contribute around 30 per cent of the overall drone market.
