Kanchanpur, Dec. 8 -- For decades, sugarcane farmers like Ashraya Badayak of Hattibhoja in ward 6 of Belauri Municipality in Kanchanpur, struggled to control pests-the cane grows tall, making it difficult to spray pesticides or apply liquid fertilizer by hand. Moreover, the workers faced health risks and often the spray machines could not reach all parts of the crop. To make matters worse, wildlife such as tigers and leopards occasionally roamed the fields, adding fear to an already arduous task.

Today, a quiet revolution is taking place in the sugarcane fields in Belauri.

"Spraying insecticides, pesticides or liquid fertiliser was very difficult. The sugarcanes are tall, so hand-spray machines didn't reach everywhere. And there was als...