DAATTC, Tornala conducted method demonstration cum awareness programme on spraying with Drone at Tornala village by on 03-02-2022

A demonstration cum farmers awareness programme on “Spraying with Drone” was organized by Sri. J. Vijay, Coordinator and Dr. Ch. Pallavi, Scientist (ToT), from DAATTC, Tornala on 03.02.2022 at Tornala, Siddipet (Urban), Siddipet district. Dr. S. Sridevi, Principal Scientist & Head, Dr. N. Sainath, Scientist, Dr. D. Swetha, Scientist from ARS, Tornala, Dr. E. Srinivas, Professor, Sri. A. Sathish, Assistant Professor along with 56 polytechnic students from APT, Tornala, Mr. K. Sudhakar & Mr. K. Avinash, AVI Drones Tech. Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad, V. Raji Reddy, Surender Reddy along with 20 other farmers from the village have participated in the programme. In this programme, a drone from AVI Drones Tech. Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad with AD-16LV1.0 Agricultural drone was employed to demonstrate spraying of post mergence herbicide (Penoxulam + Cyhalofop-p-butyl @ 600 ml/acre) in 15 acres of direct seeded paddy and Emamectin benzoate @ 60g/acre + neem oil 1500 ppm @ 750 ml/acre in 5 acres of maize for management of fall army worm after thorough cleaning of tank. The dosage of the chemical was reduced to 1/3rd based on the spray fluid quantity used (8 lit/acre). The drone nozzle with 2.6 lit/minute discharge was operated at a speed of 5m/sec with droplet size of 0.25 microns, spray width 15ft (depending on the height of the crop), 16 L tank volume, flight height of 11-12 ft (depending on the height of the crop) manually. It took 10-15 minutes to spray in one acre paddy area and incurred a cost of Rs. 600/acre against 3-4 hours time at a cost of Rs. 1000-1200/acre with conventional sprayers, excluding chemical cost. Farmers feel that, spraying with drone is advantageous in terms of saving labour, time and cost.