Having taken Zipline’s drone logistics system in the health sector like a duck into water, it seems the Nigerian government authorities will be moving to adopting agricultural drones at government level next.

This is according to the country’s agriculture minister, Abubakar Kyari, who on Tuesday said the federal government will soon be investing in and deploying drone technology to enhance its ambitions for all-year round farming.

“The faster we clear land, harvest, chemical deployment, whether it’s pesticide, whether it’s herbicide, the better,” Kyari told local media at a briefing at State House.

“We intend to use drone technology in doing that because what one drone can do, a hundred people cannot do in a day. So, we are going to use drones to fast-track agricultural activities, harvest quickly, and then make the land available for the next cycle of cultivation.”

He said his ministry would partner the private sector to support vibrant youths to take advantage of its mechanisation programme.

While the government may have been slow in adopting drone technology for the agricultural industry, there has been a good number of private start-ups that have thrived in offering drone technology services to farmers in the country.

On of these, Integrated Aerial Precision has traversed many parts of Nigeria, offering drone services for crop spraying as well as remote sensing.

Said Kyari; “It is very important to also educate our farmers that agriculture is no longer for the stomach only. It should also be seen as a business, something that will earn a livelihood.

“So, what we have seen is that input support may not necessarily be what will incentivise our smallholder farmers to produce.

“I think we need to change the mindset and see how we can engage them in such a way that funding from the private sector should support agricultural production.”