The prototype of a quadcopter was flown over half a hectare of rice fields in Sui Itik village, Kubu Raya regency, West Kalimantan, on Wednesday, to look for agricultural '€œenemies'€.

With a GPS and two cameras, the crewless drone is capable of detecting diseases that may pose a threat to rice plants.

Claimed to be the first ever conducted in Indonesia, the tryout was carried out by Swandiri Institute of Pontianak, the capital city of the province, with the support of the UN Development Program (UNDP).

Swandiri Institute director Hermawansyah said that the drone had thus far been mostly used to take aerial pictures or for area mapping purposes.

'€œBy modifying it, we try to detect pests on crops to ease farmers'€™ tasks and at the same time push the government to adopt the measure,'€ he said.

Hermawansyah said his institute had invited agricultural experts from local universities to prepare for disease analysis and rice productivity prediction based on the data recorded by the drone.

Rice plants on average are ready to harvest in four months. As such, food drones are best used when the plants are two months old. That way the right treatment can be applied in the third month according to the analysis based on the visual image captured by the drone.

UNDP communication officer Deanna Michelle Ramsay said she was at the tryout to help make sure that the device could be maximally utilized.

'€œThis is very helpful for farmers to have early detection of crop pests, especially rice pests,'€œ said Ramsay adding that the result of the tryout would be conveyed to the regional administrations through a seminar.

'€œI do hope the administrations will pay attention,'€ she said.

The quadcopter, which costs Rp 10 million (US$714) to assemble, resembles helicopters with four propellers. With a true-color camera and infrared one, it is capable of capturing the details of rice leaves, stems and grains to detect pests.

Apart from the quadcopter, Swandiri also assembled drones with a bigger capacity, including the glider-type sky walk with a 1,900 millimeter wing span. This drone is capable of flying up to 800 meters above sea level and cover an area above half a hectare.

Meanwhile, Herwadi Zarnain, owner of the paddy for the tryout, said the pests commonly found in his paddy were aphids, fake white pests and moth worms, which attacked rice leaves, stems and grains.

'€œWithout the help of equipment we have to check them manually by naked eye. It'€™s very tiring,'€ said Herwadi, who is also chairman of the Zona Terigas farmers'€™ group.

Herwadi hoped the government would be willing to adopt food drones to help farmers detect rice diseases

Sui Itik village head Herwin said the biggest challenge that the farmers in the region had to deal with was crop pests and disease attacks, which significantly influenced rice productivity.

'€œFarmers here once experienced a 70 percent harvest failure,'€ said Herwin, adding that in normal conditions, the subdistrict, which is home to some 400 hectares of paddy, could yield up to four tons of unhusked rice per hectare.

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