Farmers urged to use drones in pest management

Rejoice Makoni Herald Correspondent

Farmers should embrace the use of drones to control pests as the technology reduces labour costs and stimulates maximum land use, the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development is stressing.

Acting deputy director migratory pests and biosecurity control in the ministry, Simbarashe Nyamasoka, is explaining the advantages of using drones for pest management to farmers who visit the Ministry’s stand at the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show in Harare.

Mr Nyamasoka said farmers should adopt the technological advancements in agriculture for sustainable development.

“The use of drones in pest management reduces labour costs, promotes maximum land use due to proper planning and saves time,” he said. “What we have here is a drone referred to as T40 and we use these drones to control migratory pests.

“Currently we are controlling quelea birds. These drones have very good advantage in terms of chemical precision and it also saves time as it takes only 15 minutes to spray a hectare.

“Generally, they are quite efficient in hard-to-reach areas where there are rivers and mountains and they reduce risks of getting into contact with chemicals. In case of emergency drones save time. We have other means of managing migratory pests such as mist blowers and vehicle mounted sprayers.”

Farmers have embraced the use of drones although they are still limited to large-scale commercial farmers who are technically advanced and financially sound.

The seemingly slow embracing of drones by farmers may be because they are pricy.

Mr Nyamasoka noted that there was need to tailor-make drones for communal and small-scale farmers.

“There is need to come up with some drones for communal, A1 and A2 farmers,” he said. “The other thing is that marketing of drone technology is still lagging behind. This should be done on all available media platforms.”

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 and has been training farmers in drone operation to ensure that they use the equipment effectively and boost productivity.

Farmers must remember the mandatory licensing requirements of drones by the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe before they start flying them.