Starting July, the Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs), the one-stop centres for farmers’ services, in Andhra Pradesh will be equipped with agricultural pesticide spraying drones that will help farmers cover acres of crop within minutes.
Special Commissioner of Agriculture C. Hari Kiran, speaking at the workshop on export opportunities for agricultural, horticultural and processed food products from Andhra Pradesh, here on Tuesday, said that ever since the RBKs were established across the State in 2019-2020, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy was continuously focussed on improving the services provided through them.
As part of the Agriculture Department’s initiatives to provide better facilities to the farmers, drones would be provided at the RBKs so that farmers spray pesticides on their crops without worrying about the scarcity of labour, he said.
“We have labour issues in many areas when it comes to spraying pesticides on the crops. From July, RBKs will be equipped with drones that can spray pesticides in an area of one acre within six to seven minutes. As all the drones cannot be supplied at once to the 10,000 RBKs, they will be rolled out in a phased manner so that all the mandals are covered. Priority will be given to crops such as chilli and cotton,” Mr. Hari Kiran said. He said the government would also spend ₹70,000 for training to farmers in handling drones.
The State has 10,770 RBKs with seed-to-sale services for agriculture, horticulture and aquaculture farmers. RBKs will be managed by graduates or diploma holders in agriculture and fisheries.
The use of drones has picked up in the State of late and many farmers are engaging private firms to spray pesticides on the crops.
