Pesticides Application Technology in China;
Opportunities and Challenges Co-exist
Progress in the last 30 years: Research and Development
Since China entered the World Trade Organisation in 2001 the pursuit of safe and healthy food and matters of pesticide application have become a high priority. The Chinese Government are thus focusing on
- Improved design and manufacture of spraying machinery
- The development and adoption of new application technologies and
- Operator training
Research into Spray Distribution
Achieving the safe use and application of smaller small droplets of spray is the key to maximising the benefits of low volume spraying. Given the same water volume rates, the covering density of small droplets is higher and thus the control effect is better.
Small droplets, however, are more likely to be affected by climate than larger droplets. In order to guide the design and development of air-assist low-volume boom sprayers, research is thus focused on
- the movement of small droplets within and without a crop canopy and
- weather conditions e.g. wind speed, temperature and humidity
Developments to improve work efficiency
1. The government has increased funding to develop application technology including the new high impact motorised sprayer, designed to meet the needs of household farms.
- 2m boom-sprayer to replace the knapsack sprayer
2. Manufacturing output of large boom sprayers, which have a spraying swath of over 12m, is increased annually.
- China's 12 metre boom sprayer
Development work also focuses on reducing spray drift ..
.. and the anti-drift boom sprayer is one result.
- China's anti-drift boom sprayer
ID Nozzles and spraying systems developed by Lechler Company have been used on conventional boom sprayers to reduce drift by 75%.
Application technology research
has focussed on the development of the precision sprayer e.g. the orchard automatic target sprayer developed by China's Agriculture University. This sprayer has a central control instrument which opens the electromagnet valves when its infrared electronic eye identifies a target. It is hoped that this sprayer will reduce the quantity of pesticide used within the treatment zone by 50 – 80%.
Acknowledgement and Reference:
Adapted and presented here by kind permission of the Association of Applied Biologists
Xiongkui, H. (2010). The opportunity and challenge of pesticide application for agriculture and horticulture in China. Paper presented at the Aspects of Applied Biology 99, International Advances in Pesticide Application, Cambridge
Agrochemical production and application | Challenges | Progress R&D | Progress: structures and systems
