IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v14y2017i7p715-d103210.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainable Use of Pesticide Applications in Citrus: A Support Tool for Volume Rate Adjustment

Author

Listed:
  • Cruz Garcerá

    (Centro de Agroingeniería, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA), Carretera CV-315, Km 10.7, 46113 Moncada, Spain)

  • Alberto Fonte

    (Centro de Agroingeniería, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA), Carretera CV-315, Km 10.7, 46113 Moncada, Spain)

  • Enrique Moltó

    (Centro de Agroingeniería, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA), Carretera CV-315, Km 10.7, 46113 Moncada, Spain)

  • Patricia Chueca

    (Centro de Agroingeniería, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA), Carretera CV-315, Km 10.7, 46113 Moncada, Spain)

Abstract

Rational application of pesticides by properly adjusting the amount of product to the actual needs and specific conditions for application is a key factor for sustainable plant protection. However, current plant protection product (PPP) labels registered for citrus in EU are usually expressed as concentration (%; rate/hl) and/or as the maximum dose of product per unit of ground surface, without taking into account those conditions. In this work, the fundamentals of a support tool, called CitrusVol, developed to recommend mix volume rates in PPP applications in citrus orchards using airblast sprayers, are presented. This tool takes into consideration crop characteristics (geometry, leaf area density), pests, and product and application efficiency, and it is based on scientific data obtained previously regarding the minimum deposit required to achieve maximum efficacy, efficiency of airblast sprayers in citrus orchards, and characterization of the crop. The use of this tool in several commercial orchards allowed a reduction of the volume rate and the PPPs used in comparison with the commonly used by farmers of between 11% and 74%, with an average of 31%, without affecting the efficacy. CitrusVol is freely available on a website and in an app for smartphones.

Suggested Citation

  • Cruz Garcerá & Alberto Fonte & Enrique Moltó & Patricia Chueca, 2017. "Sustainable Use of Pesticide Applications in Citrus: A Support Tool for Volume Rate Adjustment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-14, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:7:p:715-:d:103210
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/7/715/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/7/715/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:7:p:715-:d:103210. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.