Improving Pesticide Application Techniques for Desert Locust Control

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DGPS Track Guidance Systems

In order to reduce the dosages of chemicals used in Desert Locust Control, application to the target area has to be precise. The aim of this work is to develop and test new application technologies that will improve the precision of application.

Good application depends on four application factors :

  • Correct lane separation

  • Correct speed of application

  • Correct flowrate

  • Correct droplet size.

In Desert Locust control the nature of the terrain makes it very difficult for a pilot of an aircraft or the driver of a spray vehicle to maintain the required lane separation without assistance. The use of flagmen is recommended, although often the distance of the treatment area from base (particularly for aircraft) and the shortage of staff means that it is not unusual for no track marking system to be used. Maintaining correct lane separation often then relies on the judgement of the spray vehicle operator.

Differential GPS relies on a correction signal sent from a satellite or ground station to improve the accuracy of the GPS signal. Under reasonable conditions, the accuracy of a DGPS receiver can be about 1 m. This permits this technology to be used in track guidance systems (for details on DGPS see Trimble.com and Omnistar.nl)

The project has been involved in the testing of DGPS track guidance systems for Desert Locust control for both aerial and ground application.

Aerial DGPS Trials

Ground Trials

 

GCP/INT/651/NOR

A project funded by Norway and executed by FAO

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