Drones used in aerial spraying to save maize

Thoothukudi: To check the ‘fall armyworm attack’ on maize crop, the State Agriculture department has commenced the exercise of mass aerial spraying of bio-pests and chemical pesticide in Thoothukudi district.

Around three lakh maize cultivated farmers in the state incurred a heavy crop loss caused by the 'fall armyworm' attack in the year 2018-2019 and the state government gave a compensation of ` 186.25 crore to maize-cultivating farmers in 17 districts. However to prevent the crop loss in advance this year the Tamil Nadu government has initiated a mass aerial spraying of bio-pests and chemicals on the maize crop using drones at the total cost of Rs 47.66 crore.

As part of this, ‘fall armyworm’ control measure, the Agriculture department in Thoothukudi district commenced the aerial spraying of pesticide on maize crops in Thoothukudi district, said the Thoothukudi district collector, Sandeep Nanduri, adding, on the first day of the commencement of the massive exercise on Sunday, around 1,000 hectares of maize cultivated fields in the district was covered. "A total 15,000 hectares maize cultivated lands in Thoothukudi district will be covered within this month," said the district collector.

According to sources from the Agriculture department, the mass spraying of pesticide on the maize crop using drones has been done with the assistance of the Madras Institute of Technology (MIT) of Chennai Anna University. Further, it has been said that the mass aerial spraying would be done twice on the crop at an interval of 15-20 days and 40-45 days.The mass spraying exercise, done fully free of cost for the farmers, however, is said to cost   Rs 5,500 per hectare for the State Agriculture department.