Evaluation Of Current Policies on the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Indian Agriculture

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly called ‘drones’, have enormous potential for technological advances in many sectors including agriculture. The recent revision in UAV policy by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), India, can impact the pace of research and development in machine vision capabilities in the country. Several other countries that have framed UAV policy previously, are continuously bringing changes to the existing framework to make it more user friendly. India can learn from those changes and bring out a comprehensive update to foster a broader application of these tools in agriculture. This policy review provides suggestions and solutions for increasing licensing centres, limiting UAV speed and weight for safer flights and including aerial pesticide applications in UAV permits to revolutionize the multibillion-dollar agriculture industry. This article has also examines the current UAV regulations in four other countries.