Coimbatore : In major boost to the farmers, Tamil Nadu AgriculturalUniversity (TNAU) Monday demonstrated a Drone technology for spraying.

The research efforts of TNAU on the technology for spraying will help farmers of Tamil Nadu and effect input management under labour shortages, its Vice-chancellor, Dr N Kumar said during the demonstration at varsity paddy field.

The Department of remote Sensing and GIS under the Directorate of Natural Resource Management is supporting Tamil Nadu Government, by providing spatial information on Crops, Soil and Disasters using Satellites and Drones, he said.

TNAU has precisely assessed the damages caused by GAJA cyclone to coconut plantations during last year using these technological innovations, he said.

In general, Drones are of fixed wing or Copter type and the fixed wing or plane type drone of TNAU can fly up to a range of 16 km and a height of one km, whereas the quad-copter is used for monitoring the research fields and assessing the damages by pest and diseases and nutrient deficiencies.

The hexa-copter and octa-copter with the potential to carry a payload of 5 to 50 kg are used for spraying purpose.

Drone spraying can be used for spraying pesticides, herbicides and nutrient solutions, with options for effective spraying over tall growing crops and plantations.

The technology is labour saving with quick coverage of one hectare in 5 minutes using lesser quantities of water providing scope to be utilized in dry lands and fallow conditions.

Current focus of TNAU research is on standardizing spray volume per hectare, concentration of spray fluid, droplet size, spread and efficacy of drone spraying and. TNAU scientists will also work on optimizing drone speed, height of flying and delivery mechanism in collaboration with centre for Aerospace Research, MIT campus, Chennai, the Director of Research, Dr. K.S. Subramaniam explained the highlights and the focus of research on drone spraying.

The Directorate of Natural resource Management will concentrate on nutrient spraying in the micro nutrient deficit areas of Tamil Nadu, he said.