Sri Lankan government launches programme to use drones to spray fertilizer
The government of Sri Lanka is to launch a mega drive to use drones to spray fertilizer and a separate unit is to be set up in each district in the country for this purpose.
Sri Lanka’s State Minister of Production and Supply of Fertilizer and Regulation of Chemical Fertilizer, Mohan P. De Silva has told the Daily News that the first trial was successfully carried out last year in the Galle District, where drones were used to spray organic fertilizer on paddy fields.
“Post studies from the venue found out that this trial was very successful and now we want to commercialize this,” De Silva has said.
Drones were rented from a private company and technology in this regard was acquired from Universities a while another private entity provided the liquid organic fertilizer for this trail which cost around Rs. 2 million, the media report stated.
“However now we have found cost effective ways to broad-base this launch as a commercial venture offering the service at a fee to paddy farmers,” the State Minister has noted.
One of the mega advantages of this is that the process can be done with minimum human intervention and it could also cover a larger area in a shorter time. “Hence we now plan to set up mini mobile ‘drones spray fertilizer’ units in several areas and operate them on a commercial basis thus covering the investment,” he has added.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s agriculture sector is a hotspot for business/investment opportunities. Sri Lankan authorities are committed to developing the country’s agriculture industry to be on par with the latest trends in the global agriculture sector. Foreign businesses/investors could therefore explore business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka’s agriculture sector.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20210507/Z_4 |