Mehsana, Gujarat
While helpless farmers banged utensils and played blaring music on loud speakers to ward off locusts from devouring their crops last year, two brothers from Mehsana in Gujarat used the locust attack as an opportunity to utilise their technical aptitude to save the crops of numerous farmers in the state.
Pradeep Patel and Hiten Patel, both engineering graduates, used drones to spray pesticides and minimise damages due to the locust attack.
“In November, 2019, we got the news about the locust attacks in Dantiwada district. The attacks intensified next year. People there used loudspeakers and noise from clamouring utensils to repel these pests. But that wasn’t very effective as locusts used to take shelter at higher locations such as trees and using pesticides at such heights wasn’t easy,” Pradeep told Gaon Connection.
Also Read: “The locust outbreak in India may have its root in climate change”
This is when an idea struck the Patel brothers.
They met local officials and advised them about using drones to spray pesticides at such heights where locust swarms took shelter.
Also Read: Locusts have damaged crops in five states so far. The Centre has issued a warning to 12 states
“The officials believed in our advice and they agreed to include it in their strategies to solve the problem. We toured the affected areas and found that the locusts are taking refuge in the trees at night. So before dawn, we used drones to spray pesticides on these trees and successfully got rid of them,” Pradeep said.
Also Read: Locust attack destroys thousands of hectares of seasonal crop in five districts of Gujarat
Last year a number of states, including Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana, witnessed a much more intensified locust menace.. The governments in these states even put out tenders for private contractors to quell the locust attack.
“When these tenders were announced, we had prior experience of combating locusts in our home state and as a result, we got the tender to help the farmers,” said Pradeep. “Following this, we went on a spree to do what we did in Gujarat a few months back. We were especially engaged in the border areas of Rajasthan like Barmer and Jaisalmer,” Pradeep told Gaon Connection.
“So, in June and July last year, we formed five teams, with each team consisting of five persons. We used drones to spray 10 litres of pesticides in half an hectare of field. These places were hilly at times, and drones were the only possible remedy to kill locusts,” he added.
Pradeep’s brother Hiten told Gaon Connection that caution has to be applied while using pesticides on drones.
“There are two variants of the pesticides that we use. The first variant is slightly less toxic and is used in areas where human populations live or work. But the second variant is used in places where there are no standing crops or humans. In hilly terrains and trees where the locusts are in enormous numbers, we use the second variant,” he said.
Answering a question raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar stated that in the year 2020-21, ten states namely Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Haryana and Uttarakhand faced locust attacks.
Rajasthan witnessed crop damage of more than 33 per cent in the districts of Bikaner (2,294.92 hectares), Hanumangarh (140 hectares) and Sriganganagar (1,027 hectares).
Haryana recorded crop damage of more than 33 per cent across 6,166 hectares of farms, and the similarly affected acreage was 4,400 in Madhya Pradesh. In Maharashtra, the crops that recorded more than 33 per cent damage were measured as 806.8 hectares.
