Activities
- Locust Rearing
- Reduced Dosage Technologies
- Analysis of Current Practices
- Operator Monitoring
- Monitoring Domestic Animals
- Environmental Impact
- The Use of GPS
- DGPS Track Guidance Systems
- Data Management
- Novel Spraying Platforms
- Physical Model
- Biological Model
Machinery
The design and functioning of application equipment is a key to safe and efficient use of pesticides. Application equipment which is poorly designed, poorly maintained and incorrectly set up will result in the waste of pesticide. It will also result in unnecessary environmental impact and increased cost.
FAO have produced a series of guidelines for agricultural pesticide sprayers, which include detailed testing procedures and minimum standards. However, none have yet been produced for the specialised ULV sprayers used for locust control. The project is in the process of adapting the test procedures to make them suitable for ULV sprayers.
In 1994, FAO held a workshop in Cairo where manufacturers were invited to submit application equipment for evaluation. The report of this workshop is available for download.
An example of the work of the project in this areas is the definition of the minium quantity of cleaning solution required to decontaminate a sprayer after use. The plot shows how the concentration of a simulated pesticide decreases with the amount of cleaning solution pumped through the machine. These data will allow the development of cleaning procedures that are efficient and use the minimum quantity of cleaning solution.
Other work undertaken has included modifying sprayers to improve thier functionality. For example, an airblast sprayer has been modified to use a spinning disc atomiser in order to improve droplet spectra. The CLAA had already modified this sprayer to improve operator safety by moving pipes carrying pesticide to outside the cab.
Another simple improvement was to install spare VRUs to machinery in order to improve calibration characteristics.
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GCP/INT/651/NOR A project funded by Norway and executed by FAO |
Reports
Conversion of an airblast sprayer to spinning disc (PDF 30 Kb)
Installation of VRU (PDF 13 Kb)