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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


Posted by CSIAP Sri Lanka Read full article Published Date : 2023-01-16