India: Go hi-tech to control weeds, experts’ advice to farmers

The state Agriculture Department today launched a state-wide campaign to motivate farmers to adopt proper methods of spraying herbicides with the help of hi-tech machines so as to ensure efficient control of weeds at an early stage.

For this purpose, the department has roped in the services of United Phosphorus Limited (UPL), a private company that manufactures herbicides, pesticides and also hi-tech machines to spray these chemicals on crops.

Kahan Singh Pannu, Secretary, Agriculture Department, in a recent communiqué has asked agro-scientists to educate farmers on using these hi-tech machines that were being used for the first time for weed control in the state.
Pannu has claimed that these machines were cost effective. “It costs Rs 90 per acre as spraying expenses against Rs 150 being spent by the farmers with the help of outsourced manual labour. Moreover, it is safe to use,” he said.

Meanwhile, the UPL authorities said this hi-tech machine helped in uniform spray with proper herbicide and water ratio and it's more effective as it uniformly covered every inch of field.

Agriculture experts said the success of chemical weed control depended mainly on the quality of herbicides and the spraying technology.