From fields of Kansar to the farms of Punjab, drones are proving to be a great help for farmers. Researchers are using drones to monitor, research and develop improved varieties of wheat crops and fight pest which has become a huge problem due to climate change.
These drones are flying over the wheat fields of Punjab, Kansas has a distinct association with Punjab. They share the same agricultural problems and rust is one of them. India has been facing an extreme stripe rust crisis recently, a rust attack can become an epidemic and can destroy or severely impact wheat yield. The fight against rust has been going on for a decade and drones are proving to be a great help as it makes the data collection faster.
Daljit Singh, a researcher of plant pathology at Kansas State University, points out that drones have a vast potential to assist in wheat variety development,” he told indiaclimatedialogue.net.
“One of the biggest challenges in India is diverse weather and farming practices. Punjab suffers from stripe rust but Bihar suffers largely from spot blotch disease,” Uttam Kumar said.
Uttam Kumar said that apart from developing climate-resilient wheat, BISA has been developing a series of calculators for providing precise information to farmers. Using the data collected through drones, BISA’s urea calculator application determines the precise amount of nitrogen needed in the field.
Thus farmers are told the exact amount of urea needed in a wheat field. “It’s a massive supportive information for poor farmers of Bihar,” Kumar said. Most farmers in the state are poor and farming is hardly mechanised. Under such circumstances, saving on urea and water saves farmers a lot of money.