DA allots P300 M for drones in rice production

The Department of Agriculture (DA) has allotted P300 million to promote the use of drones for the country's palay production.

- By BELLA CARIASO

At a press conference, DA National Rice Program deputy program director Glenn Estrada said the department has started the Drones4Rice Project which initially targets to cover at least 150,000 hectares of palay plantations in the country.

"We have about 4.8 million hectares of land and we will initially target to cover 150,000 hectares to jumpstart the Drones4Rice Program," Estrada said.

He added the Drones4Rice Program aims to reduce palay production costs and need for manual labor. It also aims to draw the youth to farming.

"We already covered 20,000 hectares as the cropping season has just started, primarily under the National Irrigation Administration," Estrada added.

According to him, a farmer only needs to spend P8,000 when using drones in palay production compared to the normal P12,000 labor cost.