Can aeronautical engineering benefit agriculture? Visit the ongoing Krishi Mela to know how drones can come handy for spraying pesticides on agricultural and horticultural crops. As the spraying of pesticides can be a health hazard, scientists are now looking at drone technology for pesticide application without the involvement of people. Manual spraying is also a costly and time-consuming process.
University of Agricultural Sciences-Raichur has taken up a project to develop a drone which helps in spraying of pesticides.
Devanand Maski, Assistant Professor in the College of Agricultural Engineering of UAS-Raichur, says the university was able to develop a drone with a payload of 20 litres. “It is not about mere spraying of pesticide from above, but developing a digital method of spraying the accurate quantum of pesticides effectively so that excess application of pesticides could also be stopped,” he noted.
Another advantage is that the pesticide application can be pre-programmed so that there is no need for human monitoring. Drone technology is at least five-fold faster compared with manual spraying, said the scientist.
But, the main impediment is the initial cost as that runs to nearly ₹18 lakh for the drone developed by UAS-R. But Dr. Devanand said farmers would still be able to use it if the Government rents it out through its custom hiring centres or other agencies.
Similarly, General Aeronautics Pvt. Limited has also developed different drone models for pesticide spraying. The firm has tied with some big farm service providers to reach out to farmers. It has kept a 15-kg payload capacity drone for display at the Krishi Mela. It would cost ₹10 lakh to ₹15 lakh.
