4 min readPuneDec 12, 2025 02:13 PM IST
First published on: Dec 12, 2025 at 02:13 PM IST
Seema Khandade had never seen anybody, especially a woman, operate a drone before. Today, however, she is flying high as one of the farmers who have become drone operators in Maharashtra—and among the few who are using the technology to promote climate-friendly agriculture. “The first time I tried to fly a drone, it went up very easily but did not want to come down,” she says.
Since then, the villager from Jafrabad in Jalna has become one of the contacts for farmers from nearby areas who want their fields sprayed with fertilisers and pesticides. “I go out into the fields on my four-wheeler and start operating the remote control to lift and control the drone. Quite soon, a crowd gathers to watch me because the technology is new, as is seeing a woman handle it,” says Khandade.
The interest has an added benefit. Khandade, who is part of ProRISE—a project by Pune-based Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR), which works in watershed management and climate-resilient rural development, uses it to promote biological options from her farmer producer company (FPC).
“FPCs are promoting drones not only as a technology but also as a tool to promote biological options. A drone operator travelling to the field carries the biological and green options in pesticides. Farmers might have bought chemical options, but a drone operator can sway them to using green alternatives,” says Sandeep Jadhav, Director, WOTR.
As part of the programme, the FPCs purchase drones for precision spraying, with crop monitoring set to begin soon.
Reduced labour, lower chemical use
In India’s agricultural belts, from Punjab and Haryana to Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, many women have become drone pilots as part of the central government’s ‘Drone Didi’ scheme. According to the plan, 15,000 drones would be provided to women self-help groups, with an outlay of Rs 1,261 crore for the 2023-24 to 2025-26 period.
ProRISE, supported by the Walmart Foundation, a global philanthropic and social impact organisation, aims to take the use of drones in agriculture to the next level. Launched in 2023, the project currently has three drones being operated by three women, each associated with a different FPC. The initiative, rolled out in Jalna, Solapur and Dharashiv districts, has reached 2,100 farmers, with nearly 29 per cent more expected to benefit by next month.
According to Jadhav, early results show clear advantages of reduced labour and time, lower chemical use, and more effective pest control. For instance, it takes Khandade just around seven minutes for a round of spraying one acre–a task that could take far longer if done manually–and she charges Rs 500 per acre. This income is a revenue source for the FPC, and she gets a share.
“Since we are working with 74 FPCs across four states, we have found that FPCs are largely concerned about businesses and not the ecosystem around them. When farmers use drones for agriculture, they do not distinguish between harmful chemicals and biological options. We wanted FPCs to continue profiting in their business, but without forgetting the ecosystem or the biological aspect of farming. This was our focus when we started working with 11 FPCs as part of the drone programme under ProRISE,” says Jadhav.
Experts from WOTR told FPCs that, in the long run, if they did not look after soil health, it would impact farmers’ productivity. Business will suffer, and FPCs themselves will be affected. Their profit-making is completely dependent on the health of the soil and farming practices, they were informed.
As part of training FPCs, the programme reached out to rural women to become drone pilots. They were trained and certified, while men participated by handling potential challenges such as safety issues in travelling to remote farms, carrying the heavy drone and navigating difficult terrain.
With the project taking off, women like Khandade are now keeping a firm grip on the controls.
As part of training FPCs, the programme reached out to rural women to become drone pilots. (Express Photo) 
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