Rallis India to supply pesticides, crop nutrients to Garuda Aerospace for pilot demonstration

Chennai-based drone startup, Garuda Aerospace has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Rallis India Limited, a subsidiary of Tata Chemicals and a supplier of agrochemicals, crop nutrients and seeds. As per the partnership, Rallis will supply pesticides and crop nutrients to Garuda for a pilot demonstration and spraying of pesticides on fields through drones mainly in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. 

“The partnership will demonstrate end-to-end drone service solution to farmers and the channel partners,” Garuda Aerospace Founder and chief executive officer, Agnishwar Jayaprakash said. The drone pilots will conduct demonstrations on approximately 1,000 acres of land on crops such as paddy, onion, bengal gram, wheat and vegetables. 

Garuda boasts a fleet of 400 drones and a well-trained team of over 500 pilots in 26 locations across the country, while Rallis India holds a strong distribution network for crop care and seeds, crop care range reaches to farmers through a network of 4,000 dealers and 60,000 retailers. Jayaprakash added that the companies will jointly “work for the betterment of the farmers by leveraging technology in their agricultural operations”.

 “This collaboration also provides first-hand experience of the advantages of drone applications. We are continuously focused on making farming more resilient,” said Rallis India COO S Nagarajan. 

Last month, Garuda partnered with IT major Cognizant to fit advanced digital capabilities and analytics on its drones, aimed at bringing innovative solutions at scale to the enterprise. 

In September 2022, the Chennai-based company received approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) as an official remote pilot training organisation (RPTO). This makes Garuda the 31st RPTO in India to have been approved since the Union government liberalised drone regulations in August last year. The startup also launched a ‘drone yatra’ in December 2022 to educate and demonstrate drone’s efficacy among farmers.