Reducing environmental exposure to PPPs in super-high density olive orchards using UAV sprayers

• DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1272372
• Publication Date: 2024-01-04T04:23:12Z
• Authors: Luis Sánchez-Fern...; María Barrera-Báez; Jorge Martínez-Gu...; Manuel Pérez-Ruiz
• Keywords: Sprayer; Orchard; Precision Agriculture; Downwash

The increasing demand for optimizing the use of agricultural resources will require adoption cutting-edge technologies and precision farming management. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) sprayers seem promising due to their potential perform or spot spraying, particularly in woody crop environments where total surface spraying is unnecessary. However, incorporating this technology limited by lack scientific knowledge about environmental risks associated with UAV strict legal framework. Nonetheless, these systems’ characteristic downwash airflow swath width can potentially mitigate drift hedgerow crops. During our study we performed comparative studies aimed compare airborne drift, soil, depositions between a conventional orchard sprayer commercial superhigh-density South Iberian Peninsula 2022. Our findings reveal that, olive orchards, presents substantial reduction while soil showed no significant differences compared those terrestrial sprayer. Crop were significantly lower when utilizing These results suggest that introducing Mediterranean systems, under specific scenarios, effectively reduce impact encourage responsible plant protection products (PPPs).