ICAR CCARI Conducted a ‘Workshop on the Use of Drones for Nutrient Management’
ICAR CCARI Conducted a ‘Workshop on the Use of Drones for Nutrient Management’
A workshop on the use of drones for nutrient management in paddy in coastal regions was organized by ICAR-CCARI at the paddy research field on 18th September 2024. Dr. Raghavendra Bhatta, Hon’ble DDG (Animal Science), ICAR, New Delhi, Dr. V. K. Gupta, Director, NRC on Pig, Guwahati, Dr. N. H. Mohan, Scientist I/c AICRP Pig, with other delegates graced the occasion. Also, seven Junior Scale Officers of Goa Civil Service of the rank of Deputy Collector/Deputy Director attended this workshop. Dr. Parveen Kumar, Director, ICAR CCARI briefed the delegates and participants about the passionate efforts of the Institute and KVK for popularising the use of drones in the coastal farmer's field as a part of ‘Viksit Bharat’, a dream program of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji. All delegates appreciated the developments being undertaken by ICAR-CCARI in this sector.
Shri Vinod A. Ubarhande, ACTO (FS) elaborated on the purpose of this workshop, the importance of drones in this era of technology for higher efficiency, available resources and expert pilots of ICAR-CCARI in this field, scope for use of drones in coastal agriculture, especially in paddy and plantation crop-based farms. He also mentioned the proactive steps taken by the institute with public-private partnership (PPP) mode for the use of drones to spray nano-urea fertilizer in coastal crops. Shri Rupak, a technical expert from the Airbots Aerospace Pvt. Ltd., demonstrated the spraying of nano-fertilizer on Institute paddy farm, with detailed information on various types of drones and new upcoming improvements in this sector for agriculture.
Dr. Gopal Ramdas Mahajan, Sr. Scientist (Soil Science) coordinated this workshop along with Shri Vinod A. Ubarhande, ACTO (FS) and Dr. N. Bommayasamy, Sr. Scientist & Head, KVK, with technical assistance from Smt. Pranjali Wadekar, STO (Computer) and Shri Vishwajeet Prajapati, TO (Computer). All scientists, technical, project and field staff attended this workshop on the use of drones for nutrient management.