Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 141004, Punjab, India
*Email: aseemverma@pau.edu (corresponding author)
Online Published on 6 February, 2023.
A study was conducted to assess the field performance of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based sprayer for pesticide application in green gram crop in Punjab during 2018 and 2019. The treatments include: T1-control (untreated); T2-pesticide application with knapsack sprayer; and T3-pesticide application with UAV based sprayer. The droplet size was significantly small in T3 (200.34 to 253.01 µm) compared to T2 (463.88 to 738.80 µm). The droplet density was significantly more in T3 compared to T2 at top, middle and bottom of the crop canopy. The maximum reduction in whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Genn.) incidence was observed three days after spray in T3 (36.84 and 42.72%) and T2 (28.71 and 29.70%). Thus, UAV based sprayer was found to be more effective producing smaller droplets, more droplets/unit area, and in controlling B. tabaci in green gram.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), Aerial spraying, Efficacy, Drone sprayer, Green gram, Bemisia tabaci, Droplet density, Size, Volume Median Diameter (VMD)
