Sumathi Information Technologies advances with industrial drones to uplift agriculture in Sri Lanka

Sumathi Drones  

Sumathi Information Technologies (SiT), a subsidiary of Sumathi Holdings – a large and extensively diversified business conglomerate in Sri Lanka, is a well-reputed and established organisation in the technology industry in Sri Lanka. Backed by over 20 years of experience, the organisation has now ventured further, paving the way to provide feasible and efficient solutions for agriculture in Sri Lanka.  

As a subsidiary of Sumathi Holdings, Sumathi Information Technologies is a professionally managed, socially responsible, successful company that delivers superior value to their stakeholders. Sumathi Holdings has further diversified and has several other strategic investments and alliances in several key sectors of the economy.  

SiT initiated Global Positioning Systems through hand-held devices in 1994 and since then has evolved exponentially, specialising and providing enterprise-level global positioning systems, geographic information systems and communication solutions to government agencies and other leading business organisations in the country. The SiT team works meticulously striving to create applications that meet the overall strategy of their clients.

This business venture of SiT, being the first to test and implement industrial drones in construction, irrigation and military tasks as well as the pioneers to introduce anti-drone technology and counter measures for the security forces, focuses on revolutionising key industries in Sri Lanka with special emphasis on the agriculture industry having successfully launched agricultural spraying services island-wide. 

Having entered into a partnership in 2017 with Dà-Jiāng Innovations (better known as DJI), the world’s leading drone manufacturer in China, SiT and Retail IT (a supporting arm of Sumathi Holdings) were able to further enhance their geographic information solutions (GIS).  

Infusing technology to local industries like agriculture will immensely contribute towards industrial development as well as community development in Sri Lanka by uplifting farmers wellbeing brought about by effective time and crop management.  

The use of drone technology in the agriculture sector will vastly benefit the industry by enabling treatment from above for crops as high as 30 meters or even for infant and maturing crops at ground level. The footage will provide high quality zone maps for future reference and crop planning. Remote monitoring of crops and livestock plus targeted nutrient or pesticide applications with the generation of variable rate prescriptions will help to decrease inputs and maximise profits. 

The health of the crops can be assessed accurately using NDVI technology developed by NASA to process photos in a way that helps the human eye better visualise plant health. This will eliminate False-Colour mapping and reduce wastage. The crops can be managed better and safeguarded by the timely detection of weeds, diseases, and pests.  

Commenting on the partnership, Sumathi Information Technologies Executive Director Chadu Sumathipala stated, “We are very pleased to make advancements with new technology and approaches. Times have changed drastically over the last decade and we need to look at embracing new technologies to strategically drive our industries to achieve maximum output. The use of drone technology will help to increase productivity and utilise resources in an effective manner to yield higher profits.”

Through the introduction of new technology, SiT will be able to provide many cutting-edge services to a wide array of businesses and service sectors. Organisations can utilise drones for the transportation of essential documents between harbour offices and ships as well as deliver blood samples/medical reports/emergency medicines between hospitals, laboratories and main pharmacies. In the construction and engineering sector, the progress of construction sites can be monitored with real time videos. 

Drones can be used to obtain highly accurate survey maps with real images whilst efficiently and cost effectively carrying out building maintenance with high power washing. Drones can also play a major role in firefighting services; rescue mission planning, obtaining live videos from operating room, dropping powders from the air where human interaction is zero are a few options. Furthermore, drones can be utilised for management of wildlife and forestry with increased efficiency and minimal errors and risks. 

In the energy sector drones are used for solar panel inspection and maintenance, and turbine inspection of wind power plants, thereby reducing associated risks commendably. Periodical checks of aircrafts, and inspecting the runaway for FODs is another area of work that can be carried out with the use of drones. Urban planning, development, coastal conservation and fish farming are industries that can be successfully developed through the application of drones As the market leader and authorised agent for DJI and Pix4D in Sri Lanka for enterprise and agriculture drones, SiT offers a range of services including drone utility and mapping software, professional photogrammetry, enterprise and agriculture drone supply, agriculture spraying services, anti-drone detect and destroy technology, combined with a renowned after sales support.