LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — The towns of Buguias, Kibungan and Mankayan have been recommended to serve as pilot areas in using drones to spray fertilizers, the chief of the Office of the Provincial Agriculture (OPAG) said here on Friday.
Lolita Bentres, OPAG chief, said the drone technology developed by a Japanese firm is being promoted by the Department of Agriculture (DA) with no less than Secretary Emmanuel Piñol introducing it during his recent visit to lower the man-hours of farmers in the field.
The technology calls for the use of the drones to apply fertilizer on vegetable farms located on mountain slopes.
Bentres said the provincial government has recommended to the DA the municipalities of Buguias, Kibungan and Mankayan to be the pilot areas for the drone spraying.
The three towns were selected on the basis of being the top producers of white potato.
Based on data gathered from OPAG, Benguet produced a total of 211,322.64 metric tons (MT) of white potato in 2017 which was planted in an area of 11,096 hectares. Buguias produced the highest with 65,073 MT, followed by Kibungan with 46,950 MT and Mankayan at 40,818 MT.
The data also showed that the average productivity level of white potato in the province was 19.04 MT per hectare.
Other vegetables produced by the said towns are carrots, radish, sugar beets and ginger. They also produced leafy vegetables like cabbage, chinese cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli and celery.
During Piñol’s visit here last April, the provincial government was asked to identify 5,000 hectares of vegetable farms for a pilot project on fertilizer spray using a drone.
Piñol earlier said this modern way of spraying is adoptable in the region, considering that farmlands are situated in mountainous areas.
To encourage local farmers to adopt this technology, he announced that his department is sponsoring the payment of service fees for the first 5,000 hectares of farmlands in the region that will make use of drones developed using Japanese technology.
A service fee of PHP1,500 per hectare will be paid for the use of the drones. **Primo Agatep/ PNA
