Comparative Economic Advantage and Relationship among Agronomic Parameters of the Unmanned Aerial Systems and Manual Methods in Hybrid Rice Production Calauan, Laguna Philippines

Challenges in rice production such as labor intensity and cost, changing weather and climate increase the need for agricultural innovations to address the gap between local supply and demand. The unmanned aerial systems (UAS) is used for various agricultural purposes; however, there is limitation information for crop establishment and application of crop protection inputs, particularly in hybrid rice production. The study aimed to assess the comparative economic advantage of input application via UAS and conventional manual methods, specifically in terms of time and labor cost; and to determine the relationship of agronomic parameters and characterize the weather condition at the experimental site. The experiment was conducted during the dry season, from November 2022 to February 2023 at Brgy. Masiit, Calauan, Laguna, Philippines, using a CRD. The UAS reduced person-hours by 8.17% and labor cost by 7.99%. Significant association was found in productive tillers and total number of tillers (r=0.9553); number of filled and unfilled grains (r=0.9886); 1000-grain weight and panicle length (r=-0.5061); actual weight of grains and filled grains (r=0.9931), and unfilled grains (r=0.9925).