KVK Samba organises Agricultural Drone Demonstration Programme

SAMBA, MARCH 12: Samba Krishi Vigyan Kendra of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology of Jammu today organized agricultural drone demonstration under the dynamic leadership of Prof. Bhupinder Nath Tripathi,  Varsity Vice-Chancellor and the direct supervision of Dr. Amrish Vaid, Director Extension SKUAST-Jammu.

KVK Samba of SKUAST Jammu gave live demonstration of the drone operation with the active coordination of Prof. Sanjay Khajuria, Chief Scientist & Head, KVK Samba and Principal Investigator of the project, ICAR, Agri drone, project. It is pertinent to mention here that under ICAR, Agri drone, Project, SKUAST-J is conducting various demonstrations to the various crops in the farmers’ field for the benefit of farming community of Jammu division.

Dr. Saurav Gupta, Scientist Entomology and Co-P.I of the project, gave the live demonstrations of various nutrients as well as pesticides spray in the wheat crop. More than 160 Kanals of area is covered in Ramgarh block on the spot. More than 150 progressive farmers of the village and media persons participated in the programme. Till date more than 600 kanals of area was covered under the demonstration in Ramgarh block. The people are happy to see the Agri drone in their area and its benefits especially covering maximum area in minimum time and uniform spreading of pesticides as well as nutrients.

Darshan Choudhary, former BDC chairman, Ramgarh highly thanks the efforts of SKUAST-J especially Dr. Sanjay Khajuria and his team for helping the farmers at their doorstep. He also thanks Prof. Bhupinder Nath Tripathi, Vice-Chancellor, SKUAST-Jammu as well as Dr. Amrish Vaid, Director Extension SKUAST-Jammu for their endeavor.

After the inauguration of the drone demonstration, Dr. Saurav Gupta addressed the participants and stressed on the adoption of latest technology in agriculture for increasing its economic productivity, reducing environment pollution and for attracting youth to agriculture. He said that the agriculture sector in the country is moving towards precision farming and is witnessing use of drones for timeliness, accuracy and appropriateness of various farm operations as it results in an increase in yields as well as reduction in the cost of cultivation.

Dr. Saurav Gupta while deliberating upon the efficiency of the drone said that the drone with a payload of 10 Kilogram is fitted with all the latest Censors and GPS.

 The programme concluded with vote of thanks by Dr. Saurav Gupta, Scientist (Entomology). The program was also assisted by Tejinder Singh of KVK Samba.