and Employment, the programme measures pesticide drift on typical New Zealand crops, as well as analysing the effectiveness of drift-reducing technologies and training people how to use them. Project head Dr Scott Post says the team worked in various primary industries such as forestry, horticulture and arable, and dealt with crops including kiwifruit, grapes, apples, potatoes and shelterbelts. “We were lucky to co-ordinate such a high-quality research team,” he says. “We worked with scientists from SCION to model spray drift, with specialists from Plant Protection Chemistry in Rotorua to research how sprayed droplets land on leaves, and with scientists from the University of Otago to fi nd out how pesticide vapour can drift from the applied area.” The team worked to improve mathematical models on drift and measured the vapour drift of 200 different pesticides, he says. The work helped to improve AGDISP (agricultural dispersal), the internationally-recognised software for assessing drift risks in the agriculture and forestry sectors. “AGDISP is used by many pesticide regulators around the world,” Post says. “The software helps to evaluate the potential drift in a large number of different spraying situations where no measurements are available.” The team also analysed the effectiveness of the latest drift reduction technologies (DRT), which refer to small changes or additions to pesticide sprayers, and found that they reduced drift by between 33 and 59 per cent. The project has seen the team work closely with organisations such as GrowSafe, Zespri, Horticulture New Zealand and the Foundation for Arable Research, as well as aerial spray contractors in the agricultural aviation industry. “This allowed us to reach many professionals and to educate them on the importance of working to reduce environmental impacts,” Roten says. “Nevertheless, we do not think that our job is over now that the project has ended. Our engagement in this kind of outreach will continue.” New technologies are also needed, both to support the work of spraying professionals and to equip public authorities with tools that can help them to monitor drift, Post says. With this in mind, the fi nal part of the research programme involved a collaboration with specialists at the University of Auckland to develop electronic sensors that could detect and measure the amount of received drift on crops. “Drift of agrichemicals can’t be avoided completely, whether in conventional or in organic farming,” Post says. “Nevertheless, we think it is possible to use our sensors to direct and improve sprayers’ performance when the operator knows how much drift is happening and where it is going.” www.foodtechnology.co.nz 41
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