Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAVs): A Novel Spraying Technique for Management of Sucking Insect Pests in Cotton Ecosystem

Use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) particularly, the drone-mounted sprayers are the need of the hour because of their high operational efficiency, high speed coupled with more area coverage, low drift, and no exposure of persons to pesticides.

The present study was carried out to understand the bioefficacy and phytotoxicity of Dinotefuran 8% + Diafenthiuron 48% WG against sucking pests of Bt cotton through drone-mounted sprayer. Water-sensitive papers are used as samples to study the operational and performance parameters of drone-mounted sprayer.

Results showed uniform deposition of droplets and droplet density, whereas, application rate and field capacity were higher with minimum spray drift recorded when drone-mounted sprayer was performed at a height of 1.2 m above the crop canopy. Treatment effect of Dinotefuran 8% + Diafenthiuron 48% WG at recommended dose (625 g. a.i./ha) and 25 percent lesser than the recommended dose (469 g. a.i./ha) with drone sprayer was proved on par with recommended dose of test chemical with power sprayer (625 g. a.i./ha).

The study clearly depicted that there is a scope to reduce the pesticide dosage when used with drone-mounted sprayers without compromising pest reduction and yield levels and coupled with no phytotoxicity observed in any of the dosages of the test chemical sprayed with drone.