Research progress in orchard chemical spraying technology

Abstract: The fruit industry has always been a competitive traditional industry in China.Currently, the China's fruit yield and planting area have both ranked the first place in the world so that it is of great significance to realize the mechanization of fruit production to promote sustainable and sound development of the fruit industry.China's pesticide yields and application amounts have been number one in the world since 2007.With the continuous increase of pesticide application and the growing public concern for the ecological environment and food safety, the orchard pesticide application, as an important section of fruit production, has become one of major problems that require public attention.In this paper, the advanced pesticide application technologies and theories at home and abroad, such as the automatic target spraying technology, recycle spraying technology, anti-drift spraying technology, air-assisted spraying technology, electrostatic spraying technology, constant-pressure spraying technology and on-line pesticide mixing technology, are introduced and discussed from the perspectives of orchard pesticide application characteristics.The research progress in orchard pesticide application machines and technologies both here and abroad are also analyzed.Many developed countries have stepped toward low-capacity, super-low-capacity, variable-capacity and intelligent spraying to reduce pesticide pollution and optimize the spraying effect.Some advanced technologies have been widely applied to the orchard pesticide application field, and America and Europe are in the leading positions of researches on the pesticide application technologies.As the equipment and technologies stands for the highest level in the current world and their products are sold across the world, they have become the most importantcountries/regions of plant protection machine production and manufacturing in the world.However, China has introduced and promoted much fewer High-Tech technologies, consequently causing China's technical level of plant protection machines to fall behind.Therefore, application and promotion of High-Tech technologies should be enhanced along with orchard pesticide application machines R&D.Besides, an attention also should be paid to the research on basic theories of spraying technologies as well as key components (e.g., nozzles, liquid pumps, small-flow high-precision control valves and flow pumps) of spraying systems.Moreover, new technologies and materials, disease and pest databases, field disease and pest information monitoring and collecting systems should also be focused on.Additionally, overall performance and major working components of plant protection machines should also be studied;and advanced test sites and technologies should be constructed and introduced in order to better meet the requirements for plant protection machine development.China's orchards planting modes vary with different regions, but traditional modes are still universally used.The traditional trimming and management modes lead to severe overlapping of fruit tree canopies in mature orchards.Moreover, limited by China's orchard operating environment, field operating machines can hardly enter the orchards, which severely affected their operating effects and impeded orchard machines research and promotion.In the present paper, the problems in research and promotion of orchard pesticide application machines in China are pointed out from the aspects of pesticide application technologies and orchard agronomy.To promote the innovative development of China's orchard pesticide application machines, the following suggestions are proposed based on orchard geographical conditions in different regions, to introduce advanced orchard planting and management modes from Europe, America, Australia, etc., to investigate and gradually promote novel orchard planting modes, to integrate agricultural machines with agronomy in depth, to make use of multidisciplinary integration.Meanwhile, the comprehensive consideration is given to new products breeding, planting modes and trimming management, strengthening research of orchard pesticide application machines, speeding up improvement of pesticide application equipment, and further improving the intelligence and informatization level by introducing and integrating foreign advanced pesticide application technologies and achieving mechanization and automatization of orchard pesticide application, so as to accelerate the development progress in orchard pesticide application technologies in China.