Farmers in Alappuzha's Upper Kuttanad turn to heli-drones amid labour crunch

Edathua: Pesticide spraying using heli-drones has been introduced in the Upper Kuttanad region, offering major relief to farmers struggling with acute labour shortages.

The gradual shift towards mechanisation of paddy farming, which now extends from land preparation to drone-based seed sowing, pesticide spraying, fertiliser application and harvesting, has proved highly beneficial for the farming community. With the labour crunch showing no signs of easing, farmers say more agricultural operations will inevitably have to move towards mechanised methods.

The latest intervention involves spraying pesticides using heli-drones, offering farmers three key advantages: reduced costs, significant time savings, and the prevention of crop damage caused by workers trampling through fields. Each heli-drone has a carrying capacity of 10 litres, sufficient to spray one acre of paddy fields.

Once airborne with a pesticide load, a heli-drone takes between three and five minutes to cover an acre. The ability to spray more than 10 acres in an hour translates into substantial time savings for farmers. The rental charge for drone-based pesticide spraying is ₹600 per acre. By programming the boundaries of each field into the drone’s remote controller, pesticides are applied uniformly and precisely, without spillage or overlap. The drones operate on battery power, with teams arriving in vehicles equipped with multiple batteries and generators for recharging.

The only requirement for deploying the drone in a location is a minimum contiguous farmland of 20 acres. In comparison, spraying pesticides over 10 acres using manual labour would require at least three workers for a minimum of two days, at a cost of ₹1,100 per acre. With drone-based spraying saving about ₹500 per acre, farmers say the method significantly reduces cultivation expenses.

Moreover, with labour shortages severe across the paddy fields, only a handful of workers are often available for such tasks. Since processes, including spraying, need be completed within a fixed time frame, farmers frequently face considerable mental stress. The heli-drone offers a practical solution to this problem. However, farmers point out that for herbicide application, where dosage needs to be adjusted according to the size of the field, conventional knapsack sprayers remain preferable.