Day 16: Baranga – Hon. Minister Kamal Patel’s Presence A Moment to Cherish

When we set out for the Drone Yatra, we had hoped to create a buzz among the farmer community to take notice of our efforts of educating the masses about the advantages of using drones to spray in the farm. We had definitely not anticipated to attract such large audiences and moreover, attention of the governing authorities. Welcome to Day 5 in Madhya Pradesh when we received a call from the Farmer Welfare and Agriculture Development Office, saying that Minister Kamal Patel wanted to attend the drone demonstration in person.

It definitely did not happen within 24 hours; we had a couple of days’ notice that he was going to attend in Baranga, but we needed to kick into action swiftly to arrange for a grand event. It is truly a feat by Syngenta’s field team to get all the logistics and arrangements in place for the event and in time. We had booked an entire day for just the one event because it was expected to be a major event, and it sure was.

Since an hour to the event time, the crowd had started gathering. Over 300 farmers had gathered at the event location to watch the demonstration and hear what the Minister had to say. Many farmers from villages around Baranga had travelled quite some distance to attend the event. Everything was going well, as planned, and suddenly it started to pour.

A cloud cover was hovering above us, but they were moving, and it was not that dense, hence we were not worried as much. Yet, when it started to pour, it got us worried to quite some extent. A government minister attending our event by sparing their precious time, and it being wasted because of the rain, would not exactly be ideal.

We got news that the minister has started for the location, and with that, the rain also intensified. Our anxiousness rose as we kicked into gear for a quick demo scenario. All we needed was the rain to take a break for less than 10 minutes, and we can do the demonstration quickly. Soon we noticed the minister’s convoy approach and with that, luckily, even the rain stopped. Everything sprung into action to get the event started.

We had a successful demonstration, post which the Hon. Minister Kamal Patel, Farmer Welfare and Agriculture Development, gave a speech about how the drone technology is going to be a game changer and will benefit the farmers greatly. It will solve major problems in terms of labor issues, time consumption and the threat to farmer’s health and safety when working with dangerous chemicals. Moreover, the Madhya Pradesh government is in full support of the Drone Revolution and will support farmers in whatever way needed to make it happen.

The event also received superb media coverage.

https://indoremirror.in/drone-technology-will-increase-the-yield-of-agr…

https://indoremirror.in/drone-will-improve-ease-of-farming-mp-agricultu…

https://www.krishakjagat.org/industry-news/syngenta-indias-drone-journe…

We have reached the end of the Madhya Pradesh leg of Drone Yatra pompously! The presence of the Minister and the unforgettable experiences have made this an amazing success. We now move to Gujarat soon. Stay tuned!