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Volume 07
Advances in Crop Science and Technology
ISSN: 2329-8863
Agri 2019
August 15-16, 2019
August 15-16, 2019 | Rome, Italy
14
th
International Conference on
Agriculture & Horticulture
Chemical spraying using unmanned aerial vehicle technology in wetland rice cultivation in Malaysia
Azmi Yahya,, Siti Amni Ismail, Ahmad Suhaizi Mat Su, Norhayu Asib
and
Anas Mohd Mustafah
University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia
M
echanisation Index (orMI) of 0.59 forWetland Rice Cultivation inMalaysia can be considered very low as compared
to other major cereal crops inmost developed countries. Chemical spraying (MI of 0.19) with fertilizing and seeding
(MI of 0.17 and 0.25, respectively) have been prioritized as the three critical field operations that need to be mechanized.
Currently, knapsack power blower or knapsack mist blower were used by the service providers to the farmers in doing
the seeding, fertilizing and chemical spraying operations. Being, manually operated, these modes of operation give low
effective field capacities (0.72 to 1.25 ha/hr) and low work qualities in accordance to Good Agriculture Practices (GAP).
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology for chemical spraying is now getting much interest among farmers in the
Rice Scheme Areas. Until December 2018, UAV has been used for 4 rice planting seasons in the Muda Agricultural
Development Authority (MADA) Rice Scheme area to cover the spraying processes of herbicide, pesticide and foliar.
Although the utilization is still in the earlier stage, it is optimistic that the UAV technology will be the best option for
chemical spraying operation for rice. This paper describes on the pioneer R&D work by the research team of Universiti
Putra Malaysia (UPM) in building an indoor test facility and formulating the test standard for testing UAV for agricultural
field operations. Also, works by the team in formulating the spray chemical for optimum spray pattern and minimum
spray drift that is specifically for UAV is presented in this paper.
azmiy@upm.edu.myAdv Crop Sci Tech 2019, Volume 07