We are finally at the end of our Drone Yatra’s journey in Maharashtra. So, it had to be something special, and special it was. Our final three demonstrations in Maharashtra were scheduled at Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Dhule a.k.a. Dhule Agriculture Institution; Parola, and Chalisgaon. We headed towards KVK for our first demonstration which had a substantial crowd gathered.There were a lot of dignitaries present at the venue, including scientists, experts, the Dean of the institution, farmers, as well as media to cover the event. Post a successful demonstration which was witnessed by over 300 people including the students, everyone gathered in an Auditorium for a Q&A sessions since it was difficult to address everyone’s queries on the field.Majority of the queries were surrounded around how the Drone Spray Services will be mobilized by Syngenta and if that is going to be a major driver for employment of the region’s youth. We provided them information about how Syngenta plans on providing the service in…

Our Drone Yatra moved from Jalna district to Jalgaon yesterday and the journey continued today as we moved towards Dhule. We covered Khedi, Takarkheda and Shirpur on the way to the day’s halt, covering three demonstrations. But what we had in store was something we were not expecting at all.The news of Syngenta Drone Yatra had reached all the nearby farmers as well as the region’s government officials. They wanted to witness it first hand and had informed us of their presence in Khedi. The officials present at the first event of the day were Mr Anil Bhakare, Superintendent Agriculture Officer and Agriculture Development Officer, Mr Vaibhav Shinde. With the news of government officials’ presence at the event, media followed too. Multiple regional teams of national media houses also attended the event to capture the moments and cover the story.After a successful and grand event, our Drone Yatra moved to Takharkheda, Chopda where the region’s Agriculture Officer, Mr Deepak Salunke was already at the location,…

As we move forward in our 10,000 kms journey of Syngenta Drone Yatra, we have experienced moments that have blown our mind, in a good way. The energy with which the field team has been working to make this journey a success has been more than overwhelming. Our welcome to Pahur, Jalgaon was no different, but let’s start from the beginning.Our first destination for the day was Aland, a humble cotton farm of one of the leading farmers in the region. Knowing our presence in the location, a local science college arrived at the location to know more about the drone and how it works. It was exciting to watch the young minds experience the drone first hand. We had a good turnout at the location with the farmers super excited to avail our drone spray services. Some of them were even eager to avail it right there and then, which was amazing, knowing once we launch, there is going to be tremendous response from the growers.We then moved to our next location in Golegaon. We halted at one of our major distributor’s…

Today we had three cracking demonstrations that kept us charged up all throughout. Welcome to day eight (8) of the Syngenta Drone Yatra. We are currently in the Eastern part of Maharashtra as we visit various villages and farms, doing demonstrations of the drone for the farmers. Today’s visits were at Chette Pimplegaon, Badnapur and Kumbhari near Aurangabad and Jalna regions of Maharashtra.We started our journey with Chette Pimplegaon, performing a demonstration for the farmers on a cotton field. It was a peculiarly windy day today, which raised multiple questions from the farmers if the spray from the drone was actually reaching the internal areas of the crop. Our team worked very closely with the farmers to ensure that the queries of the farmers were resolved, including an actual visit to the crop with the farmers to check if the crop was sprayed by the drone on all sides.Our journey then moved to Badnapur where we were already expecting a huge crowd, and boy did we get it. Our demonstration was attended…

Running a risk of rain playing spoilsport for our demonstration is a major challenge we were facing since our area was given a red alert by the IMD. Luckily in the morning, the rains really cooperated with us by staying away and we were able to run a successful demonstration.We visited Gangapur, around 35kms from Aurangabad in MH2. Our journey of MH2 begins from here as we plan on covering Gangapur, Vaijapur and Lasur in one day. When we arrived at the location in Gangapur, the crowd we witnessed was extremely overwhelming. There was already a major crowd gathered at the location. Post the drone setup, we were ready for our first flight in MH2. It was an amazing experience for the farmers who were really excited to watch the drone in action as it sprayed a sugarcane field.Our second visit was at Vaijapur where we witnessed a large turnout. A jewel to the crown was the presence of the region’s Agriculture Officer, Mr. Awad. He was mighty interested in the demonstration and was very impressed with what he saw…

It is an absolute honor when the Government recognizes the efforts being put to empower our growers and we experienced it first hand when the Ex Agriculture Minister of Maharashtra, Hon. Dadaji Bhuse visited personally to witness our drone in action at our drone demonstration destination, Patane, Malegaon.As our drone yatra moves forward to Dhundhkhed, continuing our successful drone demonstrations for our growers, we have been gaining a lot of traction with the local authorities as well. Now, the visit from the state’s ex agriculture minister himself is like a cherry on the cake for us, as a true testament of the work Syngenta India is doing for its growers.Our interaction with the Hon. Minister at Patane, Malegaon was a very interesting one. He had many kind words to say about Syngenta India and how it has been working towards helping Indian farmers succeed with modern agriculture practices, top quality products and now with world class technology being used to make the lives of farmers better. With the…

As the Syngenta Drone Yatra is gaining pace with the news travelling to places that we are coming to farms and demonstrating the drone in action, our field team is having a literal field day which a lot of requests coming in from other regions as well to have a drone demonstration for them too.We were not willing to disappoint our farmer friends and hence agreed to it, making this two-demonstration day, as planned, into a three-demonstration day owing to an addition of an ad-hoc location. Lucky for us, the third destination was near on the route we were following, hence, we were happy to oblige.And it definitely did not surprise us with the warm welcome we received and the enthusiastic growers waiting in anticipation for us to arrive with the drone. A lot of growers there had already heard of the drone through some social media videos and a few news items about some farmers in nearby regions trying to create their own ingenious drones to ease the spraying process for the farmers.This made this third…

Our Drone Yatra travelled from Sangamner region to Nashik as we move towards our next destination for Drone demonstration. We arrived early at our demonstration farm in Khadak Malegaon since it was raining quite heavily and we needed to set up and ensure that we can carry out the drone demonstration at the very first window that becomes available.We were expecting the rain to play spoilsport and not a lot of growers attending the demonstration, but we were pleasantly surprised by the overall turnout. Many growers attended the demonstration with a lot of excitement. The atmosphere was such, that the rain did not stop, but we could not disappoint the growers who were there, and hence decided to consult the drone experts and see if the drone could fly in light rain, and boy it did.We ensured to take all possible precautions and care to safely demonstrate the drone and we managed to execute it successfully. The growers’ excitement knew no bounds and watching the drone fly. This open up to a lot of new questions…

The atmosphere is very different and buzzing electric when working around a young crowd. We experienced it first-hand when we visited the Shramshakti College of Agriculture in Maldad area of Sangamner. This was somewhat of an impromptu plan to visit the institute as it was not originally planned within our tour journey.Upon reaching, the setting was breathtaking. The rains had stayed away and the sun was shining bright. Our Drone Yatra truck was sitting on the front ground, ready to amaze the crowds with the showcase of what Syngenta has to offer to our beloved growers. The backdrop of lush green hills made it to sight to take in by all senses. We were greeted by the college commitee and received a very warm welcome.A surprisingly great thing about the visit to the college was that our visit coincided with the inter-college sports events which was being conducted in the institution, and a lot of students from other agricultural colleges in Maharashtra had travelled here, who also found a great opportunity to…

Our Drone Yatra journey continues as we move from Manchar to Narayangaon. We reached our first demonstration location early in the morning and were pleasantly surprised to see a lot of our grower friends were already assembled at the location, eagerly waiting for us.We quickly set up our demonstration equipment which included the drone, loading it up with water to spray on the farm and getting it set-up with geo-tagging to spray the farm. This was our second demonstration and it was going to happen on a cabbage farm. This presented a great opportunity as it displayed the drone’s spraying prowess on a Cabbage crop.It was definitely a successful demonstration and a superb interaction with the growers as well who were full of questions about the drone. One of the most interesting questions that came up during the interaction was the comparison of cost for manual spraying labor and the drone spray’s cost.Although the discussions were very spirited, we had to move on from the location, so after bidding all the…

After a successful flag-off, our team which included Feroz Sheikh, Susheel Kumar and many others began their journey towards Manchar which was the first destination, located approximately 60 kms from the Pune office. Our team was accompanied by the media too who were curious to see the drone in action and were looking forward to a live demonstration.Upon reaching the destination, everyone gathered at a central location where our leadership was introduced to the crowd and a few interesting thoughts were exchanged about the entire Drone Yatra. Feroz and Susheel were greeted with the traditional cap and towel welcome, post which everyone proceeded towards the field for the drone demonstration.The demonstration was a raging success as the media was able to capture a lot of interesting footage of the drone in action. The growers who had also assembled to watch the demonstration were left in awe and were intrigued about the technology that Syngenta showcased for them. They had loads of questions about…

A proud moment for us at #SyngentaIndiaCountry Head & Managing Director of Syngenta India Susheel Kumar and Chief Information & Digital Officer, Syngenta Group Feroz Sheikh flagged off India’s first Drone Yatra, that will travel 10,000 kms to create awareness on drone spraying among 10,000 farmers. Syngenta is committed to tackling the global challenge of feeding the world while respecting the earth. One of the primary goals is to identify, develop and scale a series of innovative, breakthrough transformations that will enable the world’s farmers to increase yields while increasing environmental sustainability — including the enhancement of biodiversity. The Yatra will travel to 13 states to demonstrate and educate farmers on use of drones.Use of drones, and a host of other technology-led innovations, are in keeping with the commitments to help Indian farmers improve their yield, increase their profitability and grow more sustainably. For 94 years of our existence in India, Syngenta has been at the…