Syngenta India receives approval to use drones to spray fungicide

The approval was granted on the basis of the data generated from the state government notified agricultural universities and the ICAR on crop safety.

The Central Insecticide Board functions under the agriculture ministry, has given its approval to Syngenta India to use drones to spray its fungicide Amistar Top on the paddy crop. This fungicide is used to protect the crop against infections such as Blast & Sheath Blight.

Syngenta has stated that it is the first private entity to get such an approval for spraying agrochemicals, after submitting safety and bio efficacy data. The approval was granted on the basis of the data generated from the state government notified agricultural universities and the Indian Council for Agricultural Research on crop safety and other relevant parameters as per Standard Operating Procedure.

The government has also accorded ad-hoc but conditional approval for 477 registered pesticides that can be used in agriculture via Drone spray which includes insecticides, fungicides, and plant growth regulators, out of which around 40 formulations are of Syngenta,” the company said in a statement.

Sunil Kurchania, head, crop protection development (R&D) Syngenta India, said,“ We are also evaluating the use of our solutions through drones in different crops like cotton, soybean, groundnut, hot pepper, red gram, corn, rice in Maharashtra”.

The approval was granted on the basis