India's leading drone start-up Garuda Aerospace announced its partnership with the Union Bank of India (UBI) on Thursday.

Under the partnership, about 150 Garuda Agri Kisan drones have received sanctions for drone loans under the Kisan Pushpak Scheme. 

The drone loan will help farmers to digitise land record operations for crop production, spraying of fertilisers, chemicals, growth promotors, pesticides, etc., with the help of drones. 

The partnership will be useful for lead generation, customer acquisition, sourcing of applications, and due diligence of customers for credit deployment.

Garuda Kisan drone is the first to receive the Agri drone loan in July 2022 from the Union Minister of Agriculture and farmer welfare Narendra Singh Tomar. Agri Infra Fund (AIF) has about 1 lakh crore out of which 1,000 crores have been allocated to drones.

The AIF loans are collateral-free and can secure up to Rs 10 lakh with 3 months of EMI relaxation and a 5 percent interest rate for the youth and farmers. This development will help youth to buy drones and will help them earn around Rs 75,000 to Rs 1 lakh per month, a release said.

Speaking on the partnership, Agnishwar Jayaprakash, founder and CEO of Garuda Aerospace said, "as the Union Bank of India has a pan India presence and a wide network of branches the partnership with Garuda Aerospace will help to provide farmer-centric products in the field of Agriculture."

Garuda’s goal is to export 10,000 drones to 100 countries in the next 6 months, he noted. 

The Agri Infrastructure Fund scheme will finance 150 drone applications that will benefit the farmer community and create 150 skilled pilots who will engage to become entrepreneurs and improve farmers' income. 

Garuda Aerospace has started training one lakh youth free of cost and is targeting to sell 5,000 drones before March 31.

Raj Kumar, DGM, Madurai region said the partnership is for the AIF scheme and capital subsidy under the sub-mission on Agriculture Mechanization (SMAM). The bank has launched the Union Kisan Pushpak Scheme for financing Kisan drones to help farmers in improving their crop yield and enhance their income. 

Rajesh Kumar, senior manager, of the Katchikatti branch, Madurai district, said the tie-up is the first of its kind in the industry. "This tie-up will benefit both the organisations for the promotion of drones in the use of the agriculture sector and credit flow to Kisan drones," he said.