A Study on Inspection of Sprayers in Use in Izmir and Manisa (Turkey)

Pesticides should be applied as accurately as possible for environmental concern. For this aim, not only the quality of plant protection products, but also the application equipment is very important. The technical condition of the sprayer is one of the important elements of successful application. By the time, some parts of the sprayers get worn out. These parts are nozzles, filters, pipes, connections, etc. Unless sprayers are checked periodically, these defects cannot be corrected. In the European Union (EU) there are already valid standards for testing sprayers in use. In September 2015, EN ISO 13790 was replaced with new standards. These are; EN ISO 16122-1:2015-Agricultural and forestry machinery - Inspection of sprayers in use, Part 2: Horizontal Boom Sprayers and Part 3: Sprayers for Bush and Tree Crops. According to these standards the sprayers in use are tested periodically in the EU. These controls are fulfilled by the registered test centers which can be mobile or stationary all around Europe. In Turkey there are more than 300.000 pieces PTO driven sprayers in use. These sprayers are not inspected by any authority. Izmir and its region play an important role in Turkish Agriculture. In the study, a total of 30 used sprayers were investigated which were produced by 8 different manufacturers and located in Izmir and Manisa. Sprayers in use around Izmir had many problems which threatened the environment and public health and should be inspected immediately with the force of legal authorities. In this study, according to standards EN ISO 13790-Parts 1-2 and EN ISO 16122-Parts 1-2-3, mounted or trailed orchard and field sprayers were inspected and the defects of these sprayers were evaluated. As a result of this study all inspected sprayers should be banned according to current evaluation criteria. For this reason, further studies should be done on different areas for determining the conditions of the sprayers and accordingly proper steps should be taken.