New drone tech provides faster, more efficient direct seeding in Tarlac
During Scalable, Modern, and Adaptive Rice-ICM Technologies for Increased Yield and Reduced Cost of Production (SMART-ICM) project in Mayantoc, Tarlac, the agricultural drone showed efficiency during the scattering of rice seeds in a rice farm at Brgy. Ambalingit.
Photo courtesy of DA PhilRice
New drone tech demonstration showed that direct seeding of rice using agricultural drones cut time to only 15 minutes per 1.2-hectare of land.
During Scalable, Modern, and Adaptive Rice-ICM Technologies for Increased Yield and Reduced Cost of Production (SMART-ICM) project in Mayantoc, Tarlac, the agricultural drone showed efficiency during the scattering of rice seeds in a rice farm at Brgy. Ambalingit.
Under the SMART-ICM Project, the goal is to spread the use of new technology such as drones to lower the cost of production while increase the production of rice farmers.
The SMART-ICM Project is in collaboration with the Provincial Agriculture Office of Tarlac, MLGU Mayantoc, and AgriDom.
Immersion students from the Josephine M. Cojuangco National Technical Vocational High School were impressed over the use of the new drone technology, citing the
The drone only took 15 minutes to scatter the seedlings to the 1.2ha land that used to take longer and more cumbersome due to manual labor.
"Wow, ang bilis matapos ang trabaho sa bukid! Hindi na rin mahihirapan sa pagbubuhat ng mga binhi at hindi masyadong nabibilad ang mga magsasaka kapag ito ang gamit," one of the student immersion participants said.
Aside from direct seeding, drones also provide detailed maps of soil and crop health, enabling targeted application of water and fertilizers, which increases efficiency and reduces costs and environmental impact.
They are also used for monitoring livestock and conducting tasks like pesticide spraying more quickly and with less chemical usage than traditional methods.