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A consistent strategy to reduce pesticide (or Plant Protection Product - PPP) losses to water needs to take account of each step in the application process, as each offers opportunities to reduce the risk of water contamination. This includes the characteristics of the PPP itself (which is already heavily regulated), the training and behaviour of the operator, and the spray equipment and farm infrastructure (storage, washing/ filling sites etc.), all of which play a major role in reducing risk of losses of PPPs to water.
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Operator training is generally considered to be the most important single factor in avoiding or mitigating water contamination, but it is equally clear that a trained operator also needs suitable equipment and infrastructure in order to enable correct implementation of appropriate Best Management Practices (BMPs) to avoid losses to water.
EOS (Environmentally Optimised Sprayer) is intended as a tool to aid relevant stakeholders design or select spray equipment that helps minimise the risk of losses of PPPs to water, focussing on field sprayers, and orchard / vine sprayers. An online / offline evaluation tool has been developed in several languages (www.TOPPS-eos.org). The tool seeks to:
· Create awareness of the risk mitigation potential which exists in terms of equipment design and selection among manufacturers, advisers, farmers , and authorities
· Create a platform for discussions among all players involved in the crop protection process to better understand each other’s challenges and support further innovations
· Develop a commonly agreed basis for incentivising further improvements in spray equipment performance in terms of reducing losses of PPPs to water
The EOS tool does not address operator training or behaviour (these important aspects are dealt with elsewhere in the TOPPS project BMPs), but focusses specifically on the mitigation potential of technical aspects or performance related to spray equipment design which in turn enables operators to implement BMPs.
For reasons of practicality, the presence or absence of certain equipment or characteristics on sprayers is taken as a basis for “scoring” the contamination mitigation potential of sprayers. Key aspects among these are:
· Inside cleaning capability
· Outside cleaning capability
· Spill avoiding filling characteristics
· Spray drift reduction potential
· Tank remnant minimisation to facilitate inside cleaning
In the context of this scoring approach a number of factors need to be kept in mind when reviewing or using the EOS tool:
· The key objective is the achievement of the desired result (i.e. reduced water contamination potential by e.g. reducing remnants in tanks after internal cleaning, or avoiding spills). It is clearly desirable that the development of future technical solutions should be encouraged, and must not be impeded by a narrow focus on currently available/ specific techniques or equipment.
· The “scoring approach” may give a false impression of the degree of precision by which the performance of different combinations of technical solutions can be ranked. The EOS tool is intended to stimulate consideration of the pros and cons of different solutions (both present and future), and is not intended as a prescriptive or restrictive decision making tool.
· The EOS tool is neither intended or suitable for use as a prescriptive regulatory tool. Relevant ISO and CEN standardisation groups have already driven many improvements in equipment performance and design, and these remain the appropriate bodies for establishing performance objectives applicable for spray equipment. Ongoing stakeholder dialogue is expected to lead to further improvements still, for example in the area of tank remnant minimisation.
More background and detailed information can be found in the EOS Handbook.
EOS (Environmentally Optimised Sprayer) is intended as a tool to aid relevant stakeholders design or select spray equipment that helps minimise the risk of losses of PPPs to water, focussing on field sprayers, and orchard / vine sprayers. An online / offline evaluation tool has been developed in several languages (www.TOPPS-eos.org). The tool seeks to:
· Create awareness of the risk mitigation potential which exists in terms of equipment design and selection among manufacturers, advisers, farmers , and authorities
· Create a platform for discussions among all players involved in the crop protection process to better understand each other’s challenges and support further innovations
· Develop a commonly agreed basis for incentivising further improvements in spray equipment performance in terms of reducing losses of PPPs to water
The EOS tool does not address operator training or behaviour (these important aspects are dealt with elsewhere in the TOPPS project BMPs), but focusses specifically on the mitigation potential of technical aspects or performance related to spray equipment design which in turn enables operators to implement BMPs.
For reasons of practicality, the presence or absence of certain equipment or characteristics on sprayers is taken as a basis for “scoring” the contamination mitigation potential of sprayers. Key aspects among these are:
· Inside cleaning capability
· Outside cleaning capability
· Spill avoiding filling characteristics
· Spray drift reduction potential
· Tank remnant minimisation to facilitate inside cleaning
In the context of this scoring approach a number of factors need to be kept in mind when reviewing or using the EOS tool:
· The key objective is the achievement of the desired result (i.e. reduced water contamination potential by e.g. reducing remnants in tanks after internal cleaning, or avoiding spills). It is clearly desirable that the development of future technical solutions should be encouraged, and must not be impeded by a narrow focus on currently available/ specific techniques or equipment.
· The “scoring approach” may give a false impression of the degree of precision by which the performance of different combinations of technical solutions can be ranked. The EOS tool is intended to stimulate consideration of the pros and cons of different solutions (both present and future), and is not intended as a prescriptive or restrictive decision making tool.
· The EOS tool is neither intended or suitable for use as a prescriptive regulatory tool. Relevant ISO and CEN standardisation groups have already driven many improvements in equipment performance and design, and these remain the appropriate bodies for establishing performance objectives applicable for spray equipment. Ongoing stakeholder dialogue is expected to lead to further improvements still, for example in the area of tank remnant minimisation.
More background and detailed information can be found in the EOS Handbook.