Punjab: Mandeep Kaur, hailing from a small village Barundi, has become an inspiration not only for the women of her village but also for the neighbouring villages. Meet Mandeep Kaur, the first Namo Drone Didi from the region. The “Namo Drone Didi” scheme is a central initiative aimed at empowering women-led self-help groups (SHGs) by providing them drone technology for agricultural services like spraying liquid fertilizers and pesticides. She has five acres of agricultural land on which she grows vegetables. “I regularly take training from Punjab Agricultural University and keep myself updated about the latest technology. Drones have made farming very easy for me,” she said. When asked if they grow wheat and paddy in the fields, she said, “No, only seasonal vegetables are grown. Groundwater is depleting and we need to get out of the wheat-paddy cycle,” said Mandeep Kaur, who has been farming vegetables along with her husband Kanwardeep Singh for the past several years.
Sharing her journey to becoming a Drone Didi, Mandeep said she was part of an SHG from where she got the inspiration to enroll for drone pilot training. After the 15-day program, she started her business venture to offer the service of spraying nano urea and fertilizer on about 150 acres of paddy and sugarcane around her village. She said, “I got a drone worth Rs 15 lakh free of cost after the training and now I charge Rs 300 per acre for the service, while the cost of insecticides/pesticides to be sprayed is borne by the farmer. This program has not only increased agricultural production but also given me new skills and financial independence.” Along with farming and drone spraying, she also runs a custom hiring center, Burundi Agro Farmer Producer Company Limited, where she rents out tractors, rotavators and multi-crop seeders, which has reduced the cost of cultivation by 5 to 7%. He said, “We are living in the age of science and technology and we must adopt new technologies. Drones offer significant benefits in farming, including better crop monitoring, precise use of resources, reduced labour costs and increased efficiency.”
Punjab: This ‘Drone Didi’ has wings of progress
