Study of a test methodology to assess potential drift generated by air-assisted sprayers

During pesticide application spray drift may cause diffuse pollution phenomena in the environment. In the last years the European Union, through the Directive on the sustainable use of pesticides (128/2009 EC), has recommended the adoption of measures enabling to prevent spray drift. Among these measures, the adoption of buffer zones beside the sprayed fields requires to consider different widths for these no spray zones according to the amount of spray drift generated by the spraying equipment used for application. It is therefore necessary to classify the different sprayer models according to drift risk. For what concerns the sprayers used on arboreal crops, in order to make this classification in a simple and quick way as it was already proposed for the field crop sprayers (ISO FDIS 22369-3), a study was started aimed at defining a methodology to assess potential drift produced by the different sprayer models in absence of wind, using ad hoc test benches. On the basis of the positive first experimental data obtained, a first proposal for a new ISO standard methodology was prepared.