Drones to overtake manpower in agriculture sector in coming years: Fawad Chaudhry

SIHALA : Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Friday said that drones would overtake manpower in the agriculture sector in the next couple of years in the country.Rejecting a notion that country is lagging behind in technological progress, Fawad Chaudhry while speaking to media said that Pakistan is working on drones technology.“A major progress in the agriculture field in the next three to five years will be the introduction of drones,” he said adding that they would be used for seeding, monitoring and spray purposes. “We have asked the National Radio Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC) to develop agriculture drones,” Fawad Chaudhry said. He said that they have paved way for locally-manufactured drones and now the country has moved towards its local manufacturing. He said that they have received 20 drones from China to carry out spray against swarms of locusts as the spray from planes was an insufficient exercise. “A total of 30 drones will be used initially for the purpose,” the federal minister said.Fawad Chaudhry said that besides drones being used against locusts, it would also be used by Islamabad police and motorway authorities for surveillance purpose on the highways.Speaking on rising criminal activities in Karachi, the federal minister said that police would use drones in the city to overcome street crime activities.He said that Pakistan was now manufacturing 99 percent of the finished goods used by the citizens locally. “We will be replacing imports of US$3 billion with local goods in next three to five years,” he said.He said that a major issue faced before introducing drones was its regulatory process and they are in talks with the authorities to address it.