Day 44: Erragada – Exploring Options for Orchard Spraying

Spraying of chemicals on farms is by far the biggest application explored for drones, but here is something interesting, using them to spray on orchards. Welcome to Day 4 in Andhra Pradesh. We are in Erragada today for the drone demonstration on a cotton field.

It was interesting to see the drone spray on the cotton crop, because many farmers have voiced their concerns about how they are unable to spray on the cotton plants once the cotton starts to blossom and then they have no way of controlling the pests on the crop. They were also skeptical of the drone spraying on cotton because the fan speed of the drones might cause damage to the cotton crop.

Seeing the demonstration helped them understand the technology and the spraying technique, putting their mind to ease that the drones will not damage the cotton crop in any way. Moreover, drones can also spray on cotton when they are closer to the harvest stage so as to ensure a proper harvest for the farmer.

Some farmers who had visited the demonstration were orchard owners growing a lot of fruiting trees and were struggling with keeping pests and diseases away from the orchards. They were inquisitive about if the drones are capable of spraying on orchards. Though this has not been actively tested yet, there is no reason why the drone cannot spray. Guess it is a matter of time until this can be tested out and then rolled out into mainstream service.

Among the attendees for the demonstration where the Gram Panchayat Pradhan of the region, and the Agriculture Officer with their team. It was a successful demonstration where a lot of insights were imparted to the attended as well as we had a lot of learnings and insights about the impact drones can create.

We now move to Telangana from Andhra Pradesh in our Yatra of the South. Stay tuned!