ULV sprayer through drones

To overcome the limitation of importing equipment, the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare (DAC&FW), under the Make in India initiative, has taken up the challenge to indigenously develop a vehicle-mounted ULV sprayer for locust control.

What is ULV(Ultra-Low volume) sprayer?

Ultra-low volume application of pesticides has been defined as spraying at a Volume Application Rate (VAR) of less than 5 L/ha for field crops or less than 50 L/ha for tree/bush crops. VARs of 0.25 – 2 l/ha are typical for aerial ULV application to forest or migratory pests.

ULV spraying is a well-established spraying technique and remains the standard method of locust control with pesticides and is also widely used by cotton farmers in central-southern and western Africa. It has also been used in massive aerial spraying campaigns against disease vectors such as the tsetse fly.

A major benefit of ULV application is high work rate (i.e. many hectares can be treated in one day). It is a good option if all (or some) of these conditions apply:

large area of land to treat
rapid response required
little or no water for making pesticide tank mixtures
logistical problems for supplies
difficult terrain: poor access to target site

Importance of drones to control locusts

At present, the sole supplier of vehicle-mounted sprayers is M/s Micron Sprayers, UK. A supply order for 60 nos. of sprayers was placed on the firm in February 2020.
However, the ground control vehicles with sprayers used for locust control can spray up to a height of 25-30 ft only.
The tractor-mounted sprayers also have a limitation in reaching inaccessible areas and tall trees.
Therefore, the necessity of exploring the aerial spray option was explored.
During a review, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Shri Narendra Singh Tomar directed that deployment of Drones should be explored for Locust control.
As the existing policy guidelines issued by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) did not permit the use of drones with a payload of pesticides, so DAC&FW requested MoCA for permitting the same and the Ministry of Civil Aviation approved a conditional exemption to Government entity i.e. Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine & Storage, Faridabad (DPPQ&S) for Drone operations for locust control on 21.05.2020.
Subsequent to the conditional exemption given by MoCA, two firms were empanelled for providing services of drones for a spray of pesticides for Locust control.
The food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has appreciated that India is the first country in the world which is controlling Desert Locust through Drones.

Source: PIB

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