Aries Agro set to launch drone tech for farmers

Hyderabad: Mumbai-based Aries Agro Limited, a manufacturer and marketer of micronutrients and specialty fertilisers on Monday said it is going to make available drones for spraying fertilisers and soil scanning device for farmers through their channel partners. These drones will be available for purchase in the next few months at a price of Rs 8 – 10 lakh, while farmers can rent its service at Rs 500 – 600 per acre. The soil scanning device can be utilised by farmers at a price of Rs 50-100 per test.

"Today we have three important announcements for the farmers here; one is the ISI certified Chelation technology in Aries Chelamin, second is the soil scanning device, followed with drones that will be available shortly for spraying fertilisers. Farmers can benefit by utilising these services at an affordable price," Dr Rahul Mirchandani, Chairman and Managing Director, Aries Agro Limited said.

The fertiliser maker has six manufacturing facilities including one at Pashamylaram, Medak district in Telangana. This unit produces 14 different products majorly being the flagship product, Aries Chelamin, which received the ISI mark from Bureau of Indian Standards.

"Our manufacturing facilities adhere to ISO and FCO norms and the BIS awarding us with the all India first ISI Mark for Chelated Zinc is a testament. Chelamin is majorly produced from our unit in Telangana, which is our largest facility. 20,000 tones of fertilisers are produced each year from our facility in this State, from the total 90,000 ton produced across all our units. We have around 18 distribution networks active here, employing over 500 sales and marketing individuals. We see Telangana and Andhra Pradesh as an important market as 25 per cent of our total business comes from these two States," the CMD added.

The CMD further said that as the plant in Telangana is operational to its fullest capacity, they have plans of expanding their facilities in Ahmedabad and Raipur.