Day 18: Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand – Lead Farmers and Local Cooperatives in the House
Welcome to Day 2 in Gujarat of our Drone Yatra. Today our journey will be covering three demonstrations, Bharuch, Vadodara and Anand. This is a major paddy belt, hence, all the demonstrations took place on paddy field. It was a good thing because considering the numerous challenges there are to spray on paddy, demonstrating on the crop was beneficial for the farmers to witness it live.
Our journey began in Bharuch where we arrived to a wonderful welcome, followed by a quick briefing of the drone, its technical specifications and how it can help ease the efforts of the farmers. We then moved to the field for a demo where we sprayed the paddy field with water to showcase how the drone works and its overall coverage of the entire crop. The farmers were very impressed with the demonstration and were eager to know about the launch of commercial operations.
We then moved to the next location near Vadodara. Vadodara was an amazing experience for us since a lot of farmers, as well as our local retailer and distributor were also present at the event. They were very curious to know how they would be fitting in the entire drone service ecosystem. It was an eventful discussion post which we proceeded to the drone demonstration. After a successful discussion there was another round of Q&A which covered more queries from the farmers. Post which we packed up and moved to the third location.
Our final location of the demonstration for the day was at Anand. Anand is a special location since the region is widely popular for the brand Amul which is a household name in India as well as in many countries abroad. We had farmers and distributors travel from faraway villages as well to attend the demonstration. There was a huge crowd gathered here already when we reached and they were all interested in seeing the drone. They were gazing the drone with each minute detail which we got to know later when the questions started. Post a quick briefing the demonstration started.
Post the demonstration, the farmers were really eager to understand how is it that when the current dosage of Syngenta products require it to be used in 200 litres of water, the drone is able to work with only 10 litres. Our field team provided them with an answer which helped clear their queries. Our distributor network was also interested to understand how they can be a part of the entire Drone ecosystem and the amount of investment they might need to make. After answering all their questions, we closed on the event and proceeded to rest for the day.
We concluded Day 2 in Gujarat. Our Gujarat leg is a short one with only one more day to go, but we will be immediately entering into Rajasthan, so stay tuned to Day 3 of Gujarat.