Drones to spray insecticide, fertilizer on Burhanpur farmlands

Indore: Aiming to promote advanced technology to save time, energy, and money in farming, Burhanpur district administration on Friday started trial of spraying insecticides and fertilizers on agriculture fields of local farmers and is eyeing to cover around 3,000 hectares of farmland in next one year.
“We have been working on introducing and promoting drone technologies in farming that can prove as a revolutionary step for its many uses that can ultimately save time, energy and money of farmers,” collector Bhavya Mittal said.
On the first day, a powerful drone was used to spread insecticide in 4.5 acres agriculture field of one Shivcharan Dhanuk of Dedhatlai village while the same trial was also conducted on a 4-acres farmland of one Santosh Mahajan of Sheikhpura village.
“The trials were successful in reducing an average 5-6 hours of spraying insecticide to around 10 minutes,” she claimed, adding after the trial, microfine particles of the solution were found properly spread on the leaves that will benefit the crops.
“Insecticides, fungicides, insecticides and nano urea, nano DAP can also be sprayed through drones” the collector said, adding that artificial intelligence (AI) is used to make a map of the farmland that ensures no spraying outside the boundary of the field.
“There should be no rain during the spraying with drones and at least for 3 hours after it” she explained, adding that a local-level policy is being framed for the regular use of drones in farming based on the demands.
“Drones fly at very low height – upto 10 feet to spray of insecticide and pesticide on crops while under the monitoring of district administration as nodal agency, we will ensure that the service provider won’t make any violation while as part of district-level policy that is being framed, we will ensure that farmers would be only reasonable charged” she said, adding that the insecticide and fertilizers will be provided by the farmers for spray.
“We are targeting to cover at least 3,000 hectares of farmland in ongoing kharif and upcoming rabi season in the district to spread insecticide and pesticide using drones,” she said. The administration with help of local police and forest department has already acquired around half-a-dozen drones to keep a close monitoring over the jungle.