India has made tremendous strides towards achieving food self-sufficiency, through usage of better agricultural methods and more implementation of modern technology, the country has matured in leaps and bounds since its revolution in the late 1960s.

That being said, many farmers across India are still struggling with serious challenges posing negative threats and impacts to their work. Weak marginal links and inefficient supply chains have meant the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, has began to share his vision for change surrounding the Indian Farming Industry.

The fourth industrial revolution has been a highly trafficked discussion over recent months, and now Indian agriculture is getting on board with technological innovations that could help to forever change the future of the country and its residents.

While technology alone is unlikely to be enough to aid the large groups of farmers in India to suddenly overcome their challenges, advancements can offer a helping hand and propose hope for a brighter future.

A new key project across the country focuses on the development of agricultural drones, and a data utility platform based, in Maharashtra. This comes from a six year long collaboration between the World Economic Forum’s New Vision for Agriculture Initiative and the Government of Maharashtra.

With the rise in population numbers across the globe continuing,  the demand for food has risen dramatically. So much so it is estimated there could be an increase of farmed foods by as much as 70%, by as early as 2050. Massive improvements to they way in which India farms its produce is therefore essential in terms of upkeep, efficiency and sustainability. 

As farming needs to become more efficient, drones are being explored as the best potential way to add sustainability to a much needed business.

The drones are set to work on surveillance and can contribute to fewer loses in the agricultural industry due to a monitoring of theft from animals, humans or predictions of damages from unexpected weather conditions.

The drones will change the construction industry as well know it, with particular benefits for the farming sector, especially in areas less technologically advanced in terms of machinery implementation.

The process of using drones to increase farm productivity is known as Precision Agriculture, a farming management application concept, which is based on the observation, measuring and response to inter and intra-field variability across crops and farmland.