Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
another technology that has helped improve the efficiency of chemical application
systems. In 2011, steering control has been adopted by 64% of commercial applica-
tors in row crops (Whipker and Erickson, 2011), whereas adoption in horticultural
crops has been quite limited. There also has been some adoption of section control
and nozzle control. Currently, droplet size and nozzle controllers, rate controllers,
and section controllers are coupled physically, but generally do not share information
with one another, making it difficult to optimize overall application performance.
Various automation technologies for selective, variable rate, and robotic applica-
tion of chemicals have also been investigated in the past. Row crop growers have
partially adapted automation technologies in chemical application, whereas adoption
in specialty crops is very limited. Consequently, low adoption of automation technol-
ogy means that around the world much chemical is applied in a very inefficient man-
ner (Figure 10.8). The impact of such inefficient application is very high in specialty
crops in which the cost of chemicals constitutes a major part of production costs
and relatively smaller field size causes substantial off-site drift. It is estimated that
only about half of the amount of pesticide applied with an air-blast sprayer actually
reaches the intended target. Another half of the material is lost through drift and off-
target application to the atmosphere and the ground (Brown et al., 2008). Inefficient
application is an important current issue associated with row crop sprayers as well,
even though the amount of off-target application is substantially less (8-10% drift
losses; Grover et al., 1997) than that in specialty crops. Because of growing concerns
about food safety, sustainability, environmental protection, and worker health and
safety, production agriculture will be compelled to embrace a more efficient use
of pesticides in the future. Application technology will adapt to this need through
FIGURE 10.8
Wasteful application of chemicals in orchards by an air-blast sprayer.
