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Submitted to: Agricultural Pesticides Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only Publication Acceptance Date: 3/10/2006 Publication Date: 6/20/2006 Citation: Zhu, H. 2006. Recent advances in pesticide spray application technology. Agricultural Pesticides Conference Proceedings. Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: Applications of pesticides and other production strategies have ensured adequate and high quality food, fiber, floral and nursery crops. To meet the wide variety of canopy structure characteristics, growing circumstances and marketing requirements, high quality of pesticide transport is essential to ensure effective spray application for a multitude of crop protection needs. However, concerns have been raised over the extent of pesticide contamination to the environment from excessive amounts of pesticides. Proper application and new spray technology developments are essential to enable environmentally-friendly and effective pest control. This presentation is a review and summary of pesticide sprayers and spray techniques normally used for crops in fields, orchards, vegetables, greenhouses, and nurseries. The presentation also reports recent techniques used to reduce pesticide spray-drift potential. New spray technology development should comprise efforts to formulate reliable transport systems and methods to accurately deliver pesticides to targets with minimum off-target loss; to eliminate human involvements before, during and after applications; to aid intelligent decisions for spray applications; and to assure advances in equipment and methods are safe, reliable and user-friendly at reasonable cost. |
