Securing sustainability in Indian agriculture through civilian UAV: a responsible innovation perspective

Abstract

Emerging technology like civilian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has the potential to exert an impact on agriculture production and crop damages assessment. Securing sustainability in agriculture requires accountability and responsibility of the actors engaged in the deployment of the civilian UAV due to associated deployment risks and unintended consequences. UAV technology has the potential to replace remote sensing technologies like satellite imageries and piloted aircraft used in the crop insurance business. The governance of deployment of UAV technology in India is a complex challenge when a well-developed regulatory system is not in place and diverse actors involved in the deployment and operation of civilian UAV for agricultural applications. Therefore, two main questions, how UAV innovations can lead to sustainability in Indian agriculture and how are the issues of governance of civil UAV innovations in crop insurance applications addressed, are dealt with. The responsible innovation approach is adopted as a theoretical framework. The exploratory and qualitative study used in-depth interviews, and the interviewees were selected through snowball sampling technique. The results suggest that in the governance of emerging technologies like UAV certain values such as trust, transparency, safety, autonomy, and environmental friendliness assumed high significance. Findings also suggest that UAV has the risk-taking ability in adverse weather condition. The UAV technology also creates values (social, economic and environmental) for deployment in the crop insurance business in India.

Responsibly regulating the civilian unmanned aerial vehicle deployment in India and Japan

“…The select technology is in a trial phase in India, though in Japan, the technology is in an advanced stage of the application. An extensive literature survey was conducted, aided by a literature survey questionnaire [1] (LSQ) (Chamuah and Singh, 2020a). The LSQ consisted of a set of questions in probing format and all the questions are printed in English.…”

“…If both sets of values are not appropriately embedded in Civil UAV technology, then it can cause serious negative consequences of its operations and usages. If the regulatory structure can ensure embedding such values that lead to social, economic and environmental sustainability, then it would be said a responsible innovation (Chamuah and Singh, 2020a; Singh and Kroesen, 2012). The regulatory process could be useful in addressing issues and premises of accountability and responsibility in modern democracies.…”

“…An actor, responsible for an action can be held accountable only when there is adequate transparency that enables other actors to perceive the act (Martins and Backhaus, 2015). Along with accountability, the dimension of responsibility is also ingrained in the regulation of emerging technology (Chamuah and Singh, 2020a). Responsibility means accountability and answerability for the consequences of one’s actions (Pennock, 1952).…”

“…Moreover, the arrival of problem-solving UAV technologies also raises questions about its accountability, efficiency, validity, reliability and sustainability (economic, environmental and social) (Chamuah and Singh, 2020a). Further, poor comprehensive knowledge of emerging technology and its implications is a challenge for policy and lawmakers (Setiawan and Singh, 2015).…”

Can end‐user feedback inform ‘Responsibilisation’ of India's policy landscape for agri‐digital transition?*

“…Among the arguments made are that the digitalisation of agriculture may disrupt the farming space (social as well as policy; Carolan, 2018; Eastwood et al., 2019), subjugate people and planet (Bronson & Knezevic, 2016) and make the food security narrative too technocratic, thus sidelining a straightforward ‘social response narrative’ (Klerkx & Rose, 2020). While this critique is now quite well‐stimulated in advanced countries, a critical unpacking of digital agriculture is largely missing in the developing world context, except for a few recent works (e.g., Brooks, 2021; Chamuah & Singh, 2019).…”