The Agri Infra Fund (AIF) on Saturday sanctioned the first ever Drone Loan for a Made in India Kisan Drone manufactured by Garuda Aerospace at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), popularly known as Pusa Institute in the National Capital.
The loan was sanctioned today in the presence of Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmer welfare Narendra Singh Tomar and the Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Shobha Karandlaje and Kailash Choudhary.
The Agri Infra Fund (AIF) functions under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer welfare and has spearheaded many farmer-centric Novel funding schemes. Joint Secretary Samuel Praveen Kumar who has been well known for his proactive and progressive policy recommendations highlighted that Agri Drone loans could be a massive game changer for the Farming Community.
"The AIF has a target to facilitate loans upto Rs 1 lakh crore into the Agri Infra ecosystem and we recently crossed Rs 10,000 crore," said Samuel Praveen Kumar, Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
"The advanced Agri Drone manufactured by Garuda Aerospace and their unique affordable service model will motivate thousands of Drone service providers like Ram Kumar to avail these Kisan drone loans in quick time," he added.
Ram Kumar is one of the 25 drone service providers.
After receiving the loan sanctioned letter for the ' agri drone loan, Kumar expressed his gratitude and said, "This is my dream come true and we will now be able to use the loan to buy Garuda Aerospace Kisan Drones which are the most advanced and affordable in the market".
The Kisan drones cover 25 acres per day for precision spraying operations, save pesticide usage by 70 per cent, save water usage by 80 per cent and I am generating Rs 1 lakh per month in revenue which is a package better than the ones from Byjus, Swiggy, Zomato or Ola," he said further.
Expressing happiness over the successfully sanctioned drone loan amount, the Founder and CEO of Garuda Aerospace, Agnishwar Jayaprakash thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for promoting drone culture in the country.
"Ever since PM Modi flagged off the Garuda Kisan Drone yatra in February this year, where he flew 100 drones simultaneously in 100 villages across the country, our goal has been to get the loan sanction approved for our Type Certified Kisan Drones," said Jayaprakash said.
Garuda Aerospace has already pre-booked over 2,500 drones and is firmly on the path to manufacturing 1 Lakh 'Made in India Kisan Drones' by the year 2024. Garuda has commenced its USD 30 million Series A Funding Round at USD 250 million valuations, making the company-- India's most valuable Drone startup-- aiming to achieve Unicorn status by 2023.The demand for the Garuda Aerospace Kisan Drones was fuelled by the progressive government policies like 40-100 per cent subsidy schemes on Kisan Drones unveiled during the recent Parliamentary Budget Session, a ban on import of foreign drones, and the 120 Crore Production Linked Incentive Scheme.
Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni has recently invested in Garuda Aerospace while also endorsing the firm by being its brand ambassador.
( With inputs from ANI )
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