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Farmers in Vattavada and Kanthalloor, the biggest cool season vegetable cultivating villages in the State, is all set to get assistance of modern technology.
The agri engineering wing, under the State agricultural wing, on Wednesday completed a demonstration of biopesticide spraying using drones at Pallamvayal in Vattavada grama panchayat. According to officials, plans were afoot to expand the use of drone technology to apply fertilizers and biopesticides on cool-season vegetable fields in Vattavada, near Munnar.
Shylaja N., Assistant Executive Engineer (Agri), told The Hindu that the project was being implemented through the Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) project under the Central government.
“The demonstrations of drone spraying have been successfully completed on a paddy field near Alakkode in Thodupuzha, a tea garden at Kamakshi near Kattappana, and a cool season vegetable farm at Vattavada,” said Ms Shylaja.
“The farmers can buy the drone with a capacity of 10 litres with 50% subsidy while the Farm Producer Organizations (FDO)s can get a subsidy of up to 75%,” said Ms Shylaja.
Officials said that the members of the cool-season vegetable farmers group expressed their interest in using the drone facility.
Agricultural Deputy Director (Credit) Ambily C. said that the primary agricultural cooperatives societies could buy drones through the Agricultural Infrastructure fund with only 1% interest.
“The cool season vegetable farming is spread over an area of 2,500 hectares in Vattavada alone. While the individual farmers can’t afford to buy drones, they may avail themselves of the scheme with the assistance of primary agricultural cooperative societies,” said Ms Ambily.
Farming using drones also held immense scope in the tea sector too, the official added.
K. Jayaprakash, a farmer in Vattavada, said that individual farmers could afford the drones only with the support of the local panchayat or the cooperative societies.
The technology, meanwhile, may not be expanded to the cardamom plantations—one of the significant crops cultivated in the district. “The cardamom plants grow in tree shades and hence the drones cannot be operated inside the cardamom plantations,” said an official.
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