Research on Targeted Pesticide Application

The European Parliament’s recent vote to move towards stricter pesticide control highlights the need for continuing research into new, compliant pesticide formulations and towards even greater control over the application of existing products. Targeted spray deposition and efficient pesticide application are important in providing both environmental and economic benefits, as well as reducing the potential for hazardous exposure. In this regard, the Spraytec droplet size analyser from Malvern Instruments is proving valuable to researchers at The Arable Group (TAG), the UK’s leading independent crop research and consultancy organisation, in their work to improve knowledge of agrochemical spray behaviour. It is contributing to a greater understanding of the impact of pesticide use and the requirements for effective treatment using different spray systems.

Since droplet size influences spray drift, run-off and evaporation, it is a critical parameter in predicting the spray deposition patterns associated with different application systems and likely agrochemical uptake by the target species. Spraytec offers the robust operation and rapid data acquisition needed to reliably measure wide spray plumes, and is being used by TAG researchers to measure droplet size distributions in real-time during spraying. “The Spraytec is integral to our work,” said Professor Paul Miller at TAG. “It provides us with significant insight into spray behaviour, both in the laboratory and through its use in our wind tunnel simulations of the different environmental conditions experienced during agrochemical application.” Spraytec measures sprays with droplets in the particle size range from 0.1 to 2000 microns. Its exceptionally fast data acquisition rate of up to 10 kHz allows the real-time capture of atomisation dynamics in fine detail. Thanks to flexible intuitive software, users can view the evolution of droplet size as a function of time throughout the spray event, enabling a complete

understanding of different atomisation process.