KOTTAYAM: Methran Kayal is back in the news, but for a good reason.The polders in Kumarakom, which was at the centre of a controversy a couple of years ago for an alleged move to fill it for a major tourism project, has now become a huge open lab for experimenting a new technology in the field of agriculture. It is using unmanned ariel vehicles or drones for spraying foliar fertilizers.Though some technical glitches hindered first day’s trial run, agriculture officers were satisfied with the results.
This is for the first time drones are being used for foliar spraying in the state. The Kerala Centre of Pest Management (KCPM) Mankomb, in association with two private drone developers in Bangalore, has initiated the pilot project in Methran Kayal.“The paddy seedlings in Methran Kayal polders are facing serious threats owing to high acidity level and subsequent increase of iron content in the soil. Hence, the nutrients are being supplied through foliar spraying by drones,” said KCPM officer Mathew Abraham.
He said the method would be more effective as the spraying is done in ultralow volume. “Since the size of the droplets is less than 100 micron, drones need only 10 litres of water for covering one acre, whereas 100 litres are needed to do it manually. Moreover, the spraying is being done at 10-foot height and hence it needs low drifts, making it more effective as well,” he said.
Though the authorities planned to spray nutrients in 100 acres in the first phase, they could not succeed on the first day following a mismatch between the polder’s actual height and the preset height on the machine.
“We had set the machine with respect to the height from the sea level. However, the polder is below it, the machines have to be recalibrated for using here,” Mathew Abraham said.