Development of a Crop Adapted Spray Application (CASA) sprayer for orchards

In the EU-FP6 ISAFRUIT project a Crop Adapted Spray Application system (CASA) for precision crop protection was developed (Doruchowski et al., 2009). The system ensures efficient and safe spray application in orchards according to actual needs and with respect to the environment. The developed CASA system consist of three sub-systems: Crop Health Sensor (CHS) - identifying the health status of fruit crops to apply chemicals only when necessary; Crop Identification System (CIS) - identifying the tree canopy size and density to apply spray precisely at relevant doses; Environmentally Dependent Application Systems (EDAS) - identifying environmental circumstances and navigating the sprayer to adjust application parameters accordingly so that spray drift is minimised and direct water contamination is avoided

Self-inspection of sprayers and seed treatment machines in Poland – proposal of instruction manual

The long period of 5 years between the purchase of plant protection equipment and the first mandatory inspection, and then 3 or 5 years between the follow-up inspections, as practiced in Poland, may result in considerable deterioration of technical condition of the machines, and in consequence in the increased risk for the operators and the environment. This risk may be mitigated by regular selfinspections of such equipment performed by the users themselves. In order to promote such good practice and help the operators to carry out their own inspections of sprayers and seed treatment machines two dedicated manuals were developed and approved by relevant authorities. In these manuals the procedures of self-inspection are outlined in form of check-list of control points followed by relevant illustrations and comments on evaluation criteria. Only basic tools and a calibration kit are needed to carry out the self-inspection. The manuals also include a lot of additional information making them valuable training materials.The long period of 5 years between the purchase of plant protection equipment and the first mandatory inspection, and then 3 or 5 years between the follow-up inspections, as practiced in Poland, may result in considerable deterioration of technical condition of the machines, and in consequence in the increased risk for the operators and the environment. This risk may be mitigated by regular selfinspections of such equipment performed by the users themselves. In order to promote such good practice and help the operators to carry out their own inspections of sprayers and seed treatment machines two dedicated manuals were developed and approved by relevant authorities. In these manuals the procedures of self-inspection are outlined in form of check-list of control points followed by relevant illustrations and comments on evaluation criteria. Only basic tools and a calibration kit are needed to carry out the self-inspection. The manuals also include a lot of additional information making them valuable training materials

Calibration of orchard sprayers – the parameters and methods

According to the new EU directive on sustainable use of pesticides (EC 2009/128) calibration of sprayers has to be implemented in the EU Member States. It is also required in the environmental and operators’ safety context of different documents and guidelines determining the implementation of good practices or the compliance with standards of certified crop production. The most recent guidelines underline the up-to-date opinion that calibration of sprayer should optimise the on-crop product deposition, and reduce the off-target loss of pesticides. Therefore calibration for orchard sprayers should in particular include aspects regarding spray volume determination, airflow adjustment and selection of the type, number and configuration of nozzles, aiming at high spray application quality and its environmental impact. Spray volume adapted to specific orchard may be calculated based on Tree Row Volume concept. The air flow setting includes adjustment of air volume/velocity, air flow range and air- flow direction/deflection. The type, number and configuration of nozzles are selected aiming at enhanced deposition and distribution of spray in the crop canopy, and reduced spray drift. The practical methods of calibration considering these aspects are proposed in this paper

The trials on the influence of knapsack sprayer technical condition on operator exposure as an input to the risk assessment for human health

Operator exposure to spray applied with knapsack sprayers was measured in the open field during the spraying of the low, medium and high plants (strawberries, young apple orchard and bearing fruits one). The samples were attached to the protective clothes in 13 locations. The BSF fluorescent tracer was added to the spray. The operator exposure was expressed as the part of the dose applied (ppm). The data on operator exposure was used to predict the risk for operator. The risk for humans was done by computer modeling according to German BBA model, taking into account field data for different sprayer technical conditions and 15 different pesticides. The most important influence of the sprayer technical condition on the operator exposition and the human health risk was observed for high crops

Ultrasonic and LIDAR Sensors for Electronic Canopy Characterization in Vineyards: Advances to Improve Pesticide Application Methods

Canopy characterization is a key factor to improve pesticide application methods in tree crops and vineyards. Development of quick, easy and efficient methods to determine the fundamental parameters used to characterize canopy structure is thus an important need. In this research the use of ultrasonic and LIDAR sensors have been compared with the traditional manual and destructive canopy measurement procedure. For both methods the values of key parameters such as crop height, crop width, crop volume or leaf area have been compared. Obtained results indicate that an ultrasonic sensor is an appropriate tool to determine the average canopy characteristics, while a LIDAR sensor provides more accuracy and detailed information about the canopy. Good correlations have been obtained between crop volume (CVU) values measured with ultrasonic sensors and leaf area index, LAI (R2 = 0.51). A good correlation has also been obtained between the canopy volume measured with ultrasonic and LIDAR sensors (R2 = 0.52). Laser measurements of crop height (CHL) allow one to accurately predict the canopy volume. The proposed new technologies seems very appropriate as complementary tools to improve the efficiency of pesticide applications, although further improvements are still needed