Uzbekistan to actively use drones in agriculture

TASHKENT. Aug 1 (Interfax) - Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev held a meeting on measures to promote digitalization and expand the use of satellite data in agriculture and other sectors of the economy, Uzbek media reported on Friday.

"Aerospace technologies are being introduced in sectors of the economy. Specifically, with their help it becomes possible to objectively bring to light the actual state of affairs and existing problems in agriculture and water management," the report said.

More than 4 million hectares of farmland were monitored by satellite over two years, showing that cotton was essentially not grown in some areas written up in reports as being occupied by this crop, and in a number of cases crops were planted on reserve lands or plots with undetermined owners.

In light of this, orders were issued to introduce a system to remotely monitor the targeted use of loans allocated by the government to grow farm crops, the report said.

Mirziyoyev noted that the satellite data also include important information on construction, the land registry, non-metallic deposits, and forest and pasture land. He instructed ministries and leaders of regional administrations to study this data and prepare appropriate plans.

Particular attention was devoted at the meeting to digitalization in the agriculture sector. It was noted that there are still no accurate records on water use by farms, so the president ordered the digitalization of all stages of water use and introduction of water metering, the report said.

It was also noted that a bathymetric survey of 60 large water reservoirs was done for the first time over two years. It was found that the capacity of some reservoirs had shrunk due to silting. Orders were issued to install smart meters at all reservoirs, set up online monitoring of water volumes and implement measures to reduce silting, the report said.

A unified, integrated platform, Digital Agriculture, will be launched to make farmers' work easier, the report said. There are also plans to widely use drones in agriculture, with more than 100 drones expected to be delivered to the country this fall.

The president called for expanding the private sector's involvement in this area and issued orders to organize the provision of drone services to farmers.