In these last years the activity of inspection of sprayers in use in Italy improved with an increased number of authorised workshops and licensed technicians in most of the Italian Regions.

With the approval of the new European Directive on the sustainable use of pesticides, the exigency to be aligned with all the other EU countries concerning the management of the inspections of sprayers in use has become a priority for Italy. The first step is to harmonise the methodology for sprayers inspections tests at national level.

To reach this objective, the National Board for Agricultural Mechanisation (ENAMA), charged by the Ministry of Agriculture, is carrying out a specific program, which started in 2005, through a technical working group leaded by DEIAFA – University of Turin and involving most of Italian Regional Administrations. After the definition of the test methodology to inspect sprayers in use and of the requirements for workshops, in the last two years the technical working group focussed the attention on the monitoring of the inspections activity and on the compliance of workshops with more severe requirements in order to guarantee a good quality level of inspections.