The
Climate Smart Irrigated Agriculture Project (CSIAP) launches its
first-ever Drone spraying services for farmers and officers in Kilinochchi and
Mullaitivu districts recently. This Drone services will help farmers gain
better and uniform spraying across their crops and address the farm labour
shortage. The advanced technology of drone spraying will save farmers' time and
ensure their safety from higher exposure to liquid pesticides, fertilizers
and herbicides.
This
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) could help agriculture operations by monitoring
crop growth and increasing crop output too. This UAV is capable of spraying
crops with fertilizers or pesticides. Unlike a traditional Knapsack sprayer,
drones can spray crops more precisely. It can
be used to spray an even amount of liquid in all necessary sections, so there’s no
risk of overdosing crops. Drone spraying service will be introduced to the
other areas where the CSIAP is being implemented.
The demonstration of the drone spray service was conducted in the presence of farmers and officers by Eng. K. Arulvaratharjaah, Nilaveli Lagoon (Pvt) Ltd at Government Seed Production Farm, Paranthan, Kilinochchi recently. This high-efficiency drone is capable of operating twenty-five times faster than a traditional knapsack sprayer. Agrochemical was sprayed in 2 hectares of paddy field within 30 minutes efficiently in front of the participants by this drone. Before the demonstration, a group discussion was conducted regarding the drone technology, use of organic pesticides and fertilizers in drone sprayer, advantages, disadvantages and limitations, of drone sprayer delays in getting security approvals and economic analysis of drone application. Around 122 personnel including 31 females participated in this event.
Mr. George Babu, Deputy Project Director (NP), Subject Specialists and officers of the CSIAP organized and coordinated the demonstration. Officials of Field Crops Research Development Centre (Kilinochchi), Animal Production & Health (Kilinochchi), Seed & Planting Material Development Centre (Kilinochchi), Provincial Department of Agriculture (Kilinochchi), Provincial Department of Agriculture (Mullaitivu), Government Departments, NGOs, private sector, Representatives of private companies, Seed producers, leaders of Farmer Organizations, members of Producer Societies and farmers were present in this demonstration programme.
Story
by R. Sanjeepan (Institutional Development & Capacity Building Specialist),
NP, CSIAP
