The district’s farmers are now moving towards modern farming by using technology. In this regard, farmers from Patan, Dhourbhatha, and Kholwa villages in the Bhatapara development block have set a new example of technology in farming. Here, farmers sprayed weedicides using drones on approximately 40 hectares of land.
Using the traditional method, it would have taken 10 to 15 days to spray this area. With the help of the drone, the entire work was completed in a few hours. This saved the farmers time, labor, and cost. Alok Jaiswal, a farmer from village Dhaurbhatha, and Guddu Chandak, a farmer from Kholva, said that earlier, it took two laborers a whole day to spray 2 to 3 acres. With the drone, the work of 40 hectares was done in one day. Less water was used and there was no hassle of carrying the tank on the back.
In collaboration with the Agriculture Department and a local agricultural technology service provider, drones were deployed over the fields. The drones sprayed herbicide evenly from a designated height. This reduced pesticide wastage and improved crop effectiveness. This reduced the time required by 80 percent compared to manual spraying. This also resulted in savings in both labor and pesticide, and the uniform spraying improved weed control.
The district administration is providing drones to farmers through the cooperative society, including four from IFFCO. Agriculture department officials said that with this arrangement, even small farmers are now getting drone services at a low rate. This technology is rapidly gaining popularity for weed control in paddy and pulse crops in the Bhatapara region. Currently, farmers in Patan, Dhourbhatha, and Kholwa are quite satisfied with this experiment and are planning to spray more areas with drones in the coming season.
