Assessment of on Field Droplet Distribution through Unmanned Arial Vehicle (UAV) Spraying for Potato Crop in Hills of Uttarakhand

Maximizing crop yield and minimizing input costs can be achieved through the judicious application of insecticides, pesticides, and fertilizers. The field experiment was conducted at farmer’s field at village Museti (Location I) and Kaparoli (Location II), District Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand to investigate on field droplet distribution through Unmanned Arial Vehicle (UAV) spraying for potato crop. The UAV sprayer is used to analyze the droplet distribution at different height (2m, 3m, 4m) and different speed (1 m/s, 3 m/s, 5 m/s). The planning was made for distribution of droplets evenly at upper middle and lower part of the plant. For potato crops, the Volume Median Diameter (VMD) of spray droplets was observed to increase with greater flight height and decrease with higher flight speed. A similar trend was noted for the Number Median Diameter (NMD). The droplet size (VMD) for potato applications ranged from 153.573 to 341.767 μm, while the NMD varied from 32.581 to 92.00 μm. Conversely, droplet density decreased as both flight height and flight speed increased, with observed densities ranging from 190.670 to 340.630 droplets/cm²