The usage of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) or drones in agriculture is still new in Malaysia. There are very few studies to determine the effectiveness of spraying chemicals using a drone that can suit the weather and environmental factors in Malaysia. This paper aims to investigate the efficacy of the pesticide application using a drone sprayer in a paddy field. The plot is 0.5 hectares located at MARDI Seberang Perai. The study was done from June until November 2019. The pesticide application was carried out 4 times which was 32 days after sowing (DAS), 46 DAS, 70 DAS, and 102 DAS. There were two types of chemicals used in this experiment, which were used to control the pesticide and the disease. The study involves two methods of chemical application, which were drone and knapsack applications. The number of pesticides and percentages of disease attacks was taken within 1 week before and after spraying. From the results, the application of the drone on pesticides spraying was not any different with manual application with the current normal practices nowadays. Rice farmers have the option to choose what application to use in their field to control insect pests. In this, they have to consider the cost, availability, field and hazardous conditions. However, to get a better result, this experiment should be repeated during suitable seasons.

The current soil nutrient estimation method is laborious, repetitive, time-consuming and costly, making it less efficient for large-scale soil fertility assessment in precision agriculture practice. This paper discussed the feasibility of visible and near-infrared (Vis-NIR) spectroscopy as an alternative method for rapid measurement of total nitrogen in the soil, which is more efficient for a huge paddy field area. For this purpose, Vis-NIR reflectance spectra (350 – 1750 nm) were acquired on 200 soil samples using spectrometers. Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) with full (leave-one-out) cross-validation was used to develop the calibration model between the Vis-NIR soil spectra and the total nitrogen obtained by chemical analysis in laboratory. The coefficient of determination (R2val) and residual prediction deviation (RPD) of the developed calibration model for total nitrogen (Ntot) was 0.78 and 1.86, respectively. The predicted total nitrogen map generated based on the Vis-NIR spectroscopy was comparable with the laboratory analysis’s measured map. This result indicates that the Vis-NIR infrared spectroscopy is the potential to be used for total nitrogen estimation in soil.

The application of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in Malaysia, or best known as a drone, is changing from time to time. Today, drones are used not only in the military, but also in agriculture. The use of drones became common in agriculture due to a reduction in cultivated land, labour shortages and obsolete methods. The spraying of pesticides and herbicides may also be carried out using drones. Furthermore, the time-consumed using drone is faster compared to the conventional method. On the market, there are different kinds and types of drone sprayers. Although the manufacturer has set the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for drone usage, the efficacy of spraying should first be examined because of Malaysia's weather and environmental factors which vary from other countries. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of altitude and speed of the drone onto the coverage area during spraying application. In this study, a plot consisting of 0.5 Hectares situated at MARDI Seberang Perai was used. Three different speeds of 2 m/s, 3 m/s, and 4 m/s and three altitudes measured in heights of 1.5 m, 2.0 m, and 2.5 m from the top of the crop were tested. Wind speed and direction were recorded using an anemometer during the study. Water-sensitive paper was used during the experiment to examine the effect on spraying. In order to calculate the coverage area percentage, the spraying effect on water sensitive paper was analysed using ImageJ software. The results are expected to show which speed and altitude may contribute to the largest area of coverage percentage. The appropriate altitude and speed for the spraying operation on the basis of crop requirements can be concluded from the result which is 2 m from above crop at speed of 2.5 m/s.