The Belgian national PAE register

In Belgium, the mandatory inspection of field crop, orchard and vineyard sprayers was already
started up in 1995. Furthermore the inspection of horticultural/ornamental sprayers, soil-disinfection
machines and fogging equipment was implemented respectively in 2011, 2014 and 2023 (Figure 1).
So Belgium can look back on more than 28 years of experience with the inspection of sprayers
(Declercq et al., 2009 and Declercq et al., 2018).

At the end of the eighties the execution of voluntary inspections was started up to gain the necessary
experience. It soon became clear that a number of well though-out choices had to be made at the
start of the mandatory inspections. In order to guarantee the impartiality, professionalism and
efficiency of the inspections, a centralized organization and implementation by region was chosen.
Furthermore the analytical inspection method (mainly based on pressure and nozzle flowrate
measurements) was chosen because of the mobility of the test equipment that could be used. The
benefits of the Belgian system are obvious. There are only ten experienced inspectors and two
regional contact points for the inspection of all Belgian sprayers, and the inspections are carried out
efficiently and at a fair price. The two regional Belgian inspection services are also accredited according to ISO17020, guaranteeing the highest quality standard of the inspections that are carried
out.