Rajamahendravaram: With a view to modernising agriculture at the grassroots level, the East Godavari district administration is inviting applications from interested farmer groups for setting up drone-enabled agricultural machinery banks at the village level.

District joint collector S Chinna Ramudu announced this initiative during a meeting held at the Collectorate with agriculture officials and local farmers.

As part of promoting technological innovation in agriculture, the district plans to establish drone units that can aid farmers in various operations. “We have already identified 42 farmer groups across the district, and 19 of these groups have been sent for training,” said the joint collector. He explained that each unit is valued at Rs 9.81 lakh, and groups of five members are being formed to manage these units. To ease the financial burden, the beneficiary’s contribution will be Rs 5 lakh and will be supported with the remaining amount through bank loans. The Union Bank of India has already come forward to assist in grounding these units. Once the units are grounded, a subsidy amount of Rs 7.84 lakh will be credited to the respective farmer group accounts. District Agriculture Officer S Madhava Rao added that the drone units will be supplied by Messrs Drago Drones and Vihanga Technologies

He explained the importance of coordination between farmer groups and Rythu Seva Kendras (Farmers’ Service Centres). The entire grounding process of the Kisan Drone programme is expected to be completed within 15 days. LDM PS Prasad, DRDA PD NVVS Murthy, and others like B Sujatha Kumari and KN Jyothi also participated in the meeting.