admin
Mangaliso Lawrence Kabulika
IN line with the current proliferation in the adoption of agricultural technology, the Government has taken the initiative to train farmers in drone operation to ensure that they use the equipment effectively and boost productivity.
Acting director in the Department of Migratory Pests and Biosecurity Control, Mr Shingirayi Nyamutukwa recently confirmed the development saying more than 10 farmers had already been trained.
“Government through the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development is training pilots to operate drones. More than 20 pilots have so far been trained and more are yet to be trained as we are conducting the training in batches,” said Mr Nyamutukwa.
With drones proving to be a game-changer in various agricultural activities, the Government’s proactive approach seeks to empower farmers and optimise their productivity in the ever-evolving field of precision farming.
“There has been an improvement in service delivery as drones can perform an effective coverage in areas we used to have challenges before. They can be used for area mapping, information gathering and precision area estimation,” noted Mr Nyamutukwa.
Concurring with Mr Nyamutukwa’s sentiments, Zimbabwe Integrated Commercial Farmers Union president, Mrs Maivepi Jiti, added that drone technology stimulated decision making and planning.
“The technology stimulates decision making without much labour and promotes maximum land utilisation due to proper planning while influencing decisions on irrigation systems to use and the acquisition of proper chemicals and fertilisers to be applied,” she said.
Mrs Jiti further observed that financially sound and technically advanced farmers had embraced the use of drones.
“Farmers have embraced the use of drones although they are still limited to large-scale commercial farmers who are technically advanced and financially sound,” said Mrs Jiti.
The seemingly slow embracing of drones by farmers may be because they are pricy given that 70 percent of Zimbabwean farmers are communal and small-scale commercial farmers.
A T-40 drone costs US$35000 while the T-30 costs US$27 000
Mrs Jiti also noted that there was need to tailor-make drones for communal and small-scale farmers.
“We feel this is only for large-scale farmers hence the need to come up with some drones for communal, A1 and A2 farmers. The other thing is that marketing of drone technology is still lagging behind. This should be done on all available media platforms,” she said.
Director and co-founder of private concern, Farmbuzz Agricultural Solutions, Mr Emmanuel Marume also chipped in saying drones would bring an improvement in coverage area.
“This is an improvement in coverage area, as drones can cover an area of between about 60 and 70 hectares per day when spraying,” said Mr Marume.
He explained that white commercial farmers were the first to accept drone technology while their black counterparts took time to embrace it.
But the farmers must remember the mandatory licensing requirements of drones by the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) before they start flying them.
“The requirements include the importing letter for the drone, registration of the drone, crew qualification – remote pilot licence, insurance, approval to conduct operations through a certification process (remotely piloted aircraft operating certificate),” CAAZ public relations and communications manager, Ms Firstme Vitori said.
Ms Vitori also emphasised the importance of maintaining airspace safety and privacy.
“There are regulations that have been put in place through Statutory Instrument 271(SI 271) of 2018 as well as a certification process to evaluate and assess the prospective operator to ensure that operations will be conducted within the confines of safe parameters. Surveillance programmes are in place to monitor compliance and enforcement actions are applied to cases of non-compliance to stipulated regulations,” said Ms Vitori.
She added that enforcement action was in place for non-compliance or misuse of drones in agriculture.
“Enforcement action is in place to handle cases of non-compliance and some of the penalties or sanctions include suspension or revocation of the approval to operate drones plus legal enforcement actions,” she said.
Online Reporter