Application Of Drone Spray Technology in Agrarian Landscapes
Introduction
The explosion of the human population makes high productivity, and sustainable agriculture more important. The agricultural modernization is mandatory when demand and food supply are increased.
Therefore, today’s agriculture has become innovative and involved in technological advancements like Drone Tech for crop spraying which earlier has been an expensive, tedious and time-consuming task for farmers and agricultural production companies for centuries. Spraying many acres of fertile land will not be a laborious task anymore.
GA-Agri Spray Drone, an example of such inevitable technology which is quick. apt, sustainable, and cost saver. Becoming increasingly popular in agriculture for product application without harming the ecosystem in and around.
Solution to many Challenges
One of the key issues with conventional spraying is inconsistency and non-uniformity of spray, it is assumed that -to achieve satisfactory biological efficacy all droplets must be distributed on the target in uniform pattern. GA Drones have advanced droplet control, with improved reach, consistency and uniformity. The unique drone spray solution provides uniform application and coverage on the exposed foliage and covers the entire plant including the underside of the leaf. Good coverage of just the top of the canopy may be sufficient for adequate pest control with some products. However, both horizontal and vertical coverage of the plant is necessary for other situations, such as disease and insects that may be hidden in lower parts of canopies. GA drones, deliver an effective, uniform dose of product to a target area in a safe and timely manner with better coverage and droplet penetration into the canopy, than conventional sprayers.
Even when there is a full, dense soft crop, such as Cumin, a feasible method for product application without damaging the crop and sustaining all the good that’s possible was fulfilled with this drone.
In order to ensure uniform application of pesticide on crops, it is essential to carry out a marked spray mission to avoid multiple passes – leading to excessive use of agrochemicals which often results in Phytotoxicity.
Conventionally sprayer operators relied on using either foam markers or other mechanical means to mark the edge of each spray pass and avoid excessive overlaps. However, neither approach was reliable, because under these conditions, the markings could be undetectable, especially with foam markings and when operator fatigue becomes an issue. These inefficient ways of marking often lead to repetitive use of chemicals, results in high cost of spray operation and adversely affect environment.
Wherein GA Drones enables precise positioning and marking for the sprayer, resulting in minimum overlap between each pass, and have the potential to complete its mission near around the field edges that would be missed in conventional methods.
By this way of uniform application, MRL could be controlled that often results in export rejections incurs harvest wastage. So, first of all what is Maximum residue limit (MRL)-it is defined as the highest concentration of a contaminating metabolite resulting from the use of medicinal products sprayed on crops, which may be legally permitted or recognized as acceptable in or on a food. If a residue level exceeds the MRL the crop has not been grown according to Good Agricultural Practices and the product is not permitted to be sold, imported or exported. GA Drones are capable of spraying precise amounts of agrochemicals, plant nutrients and other farm input products in a way that can ensure correct dosage of applicators and improve the overall effectiveness of the products and therefore resulting in the better yield with controlled MRL.
With an edge over other sprayers in terms of capacity, saving time and money invested these drones have validated their presence. Usually agri- sprayer takes 2 hours to cover just 1 acre of farmland with a manual cost involved in this whole procedure, while the drone takes just 12-15 mins to cover that one acre of land, thus could cover 60 acres of land per day.
The right balance, between the need to increase food production with the need to ensure the safety of people, food and the environment needs to be struck. According to the World bank insights India, uses 70% of its freshwater reserve available, for Agriculture. The use of water, within the agriculture sector is diverse and includes pesticide and fertilizer applications. The regular sprayers use gallons of water, on the other hand GA’s specialized agri-drones provided a uniform spray saving nearly 96% of water.
GA Spray Drone technology and the use of its Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in such applications has brought about incremental progress, saving time and cost envisaging huge potential in increasing farmer’s income. With every advancement these spray drones will be one of the most advantageous equipment for modern agriculture, as it has demonstrated overall much better spray-efficiency and yield, reducing wastage of natural resources at the same time, when compared to various conventional methods. It is a critical element in the protection of the environment and manpower in the developed world. GA will prove that Sustainability is no longer just a buzzword, but an environmental, economic and social driver that’s changing our day-to-day lives in almost every way imaginable.
