Development of a training course on sprayer calibration and settings based on sprayer inspection database in France

The mandatory sprayer inspection was implemented on January 1st, 2009 in France. Up to now,
about 340 000 sprayers were inspected. A national project launched in November 2022, named
NEOPULVE, financed by the French Ministry of Agriculture, aims at developing a training course
addressed to main stakeholders (farmers, technicians and advisors but also students) and based on
DataPulve database. The main defaults have been identified for each sprayer type (boom sprayer,
vine sprayer, orchard sprayer, fixed and semi-mobile sprayers).
So far, very little information has been extracted from the database, the identified defaults fall into
three main categories: those related to operator safety towards mechanical risks ((shape of the
chassis, boom, PTO shields and covers, etc.).), those involving errors in the application of the
prescribed dosage, and those leading to environmental and operator hazards.
Some of these defaults appear regardless of the sprayer’s date of construction and market renewal
policies. Few elements may relate those defaults (or inappropriate settings) to impacts in terms of
spray dosage, and spray distribution on the crop from a quantitative perspective. Finally, the efficacy
of liquid application of bioproducts will be strongly dependent on the precision and calibration of the
sprayer settings.
The project is based on three main actions. 1) Exploitation of the database and the quantification of
impacts with the help of a group of experts. Impacts may be defined through simulations or
experiments.2) The design of the training material will be disseminated to different parties through
training tutors’ incentives. The upgrade of the project may also be found in digital forms. 3)
prospective activity with manufacturers association in order to define, based on the list of defaults,
new sprayer specifications more adapted to the application of bioproducts.
The current focus is centred on using database information on the type and likelihood of defaults
based on age and sprayer technology.