SPISE guidelines on how to make sprayer adjustment at the workshop as an addition to the functional inspection of field crop sprayers

Abstract

In the ambit of SPISE working Group several Technical Working Groups (TWG) have been recently created with the aim to prepare guidelines about the items taken into account by the EU Directive 128/2009/EC but still not considered in the actual ISO/CEN standards. SPISE TWG 6 in particular has defined guidelines on what are the minimum workshop facilities necessary and how to make an appropriate sprayer adjustment of field crop sprayers at the workshop during the inspection/calibration activities.
Sprayer adjustment is focused to the adaptation of the sprayer output (both liquid and air) to the specific crop and eventually environmental situations present on the farm. To guide and verify the correct sprayer adjustment at the workshop, it is necessary to use ad hoc test benches that the workshops should have in their set of instruments.
It is an operation that shall be made at the end of the functional inspection but before the eventual calibration of the sprayer. It has to be carried out for each crop type and situation present on the farm or at least for the most representative ones, because only a correct adjusted sprayer guarantees that the spray mixture is addressed to the target, the use of PPP is optimized and the risks for the environment (e.g. spray drift) and for the consumers are minimized.