Plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts and pre­ci­sion farming 

More and more farm­ers are turn­ing to pre­ci­sion farm­ing to help max­imise yields and min­imise their use of plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts. Pre­ci­sion farm­ing is a mod­ern farm­ing method that employs data analy­sis and tech­nol­o­gy. It aims to increase the effi­cien­cy and sus­tain­abil­i­ty of farm businesses.

A core aspect of pre­ci­sion farm­ing is the tar­get­ed appli­ca­tion of plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts. Farm­ers use sen­sors, drones and satel­lites for this. The tech­nol­o­gy allows them to mon­i­tor the con­di­tion of their fields and obtain mean­ing­ful infor­ma­tion about the need for plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts. As a result, any chem­i­cals used can be lim­it­ed to affect­ed areas, thus max­imis­ing yields, reduc­ing the impact on the envi­ron­ment and low­er­ing costs.

With the help of appli­ca­tion maps based on satel­lite data, dif­fer­ent zones can be recog­nised and used for site-spe­cif­ic appli­ca­tion of plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts. One espe­cial­ly suit­able soft­ware solu­tion is the com­po­nent Crop View from 365FarmNet. This soft­ware can be used to quick­ly and eas­i­ly gen­er­ate appli­ca­tion maps for sow­ing, fer­til­is­ing and plant pro­tec­tion purposes.

In con­junc­tion with plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts, pre­ci­sion farm­ing there­fore has the poten­tial to make agri­cul­ture more sus­tain­able – a com­bi­na­tion that is also ben­e­fi­cial for con­sumers, as it boosts the qual­i­ty and safe­ty of food.

As a whole, pre­ci­sion farm­ing is an increas­ing­ly impor­tant way to meet the grow­ing demand for food, with­out plac­ing an even greater bur­den on the envi­ron­ment. Com­bined with effec­tive use of plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts, this is a real step towards sus­tain­able agri­cul­ture thanks to inno­v­a­tive technology.

Tech­nol­o­gy for apply­ing plant pro­tec­tion products

The use of plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts is one of the most impor­tant prac­tices in mod­ern agri­cul­ture. Ulti­mate­ly, it max­imis­es yields and min­imis­es the loss of har­vests to pests and diseases.

There are cur­rent­ly many tech­nolo­gies avail­able for apply­ing plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts. One of the most com­mon is spray appli­ca­tion. In this method, the plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts are applied to the plants using a spray­ing device. Spe­cial noz­zles which con­trol the size and dis­tri­b­u­tion of the droplets are used for this pur­pose. This means that the effec­tive­ness of the plant pro­tec­tion prod­uct can be increased and the appro­pri­ate quan­ti­ty can be dispensed.

As already men­tioned, anoth­er tech­nol­o­gy used for apply­ing plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts is pre­ci­sion farm­ing. In this par­tic­u­lar case, it uses GPS, sen­sors and satel­lites to deter­mine the amount need­ed on spe­cif­ic fields.

Self-dri­ving trac­tors are anoth­er exam­ple for the appli­ca­tion of plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts. These machines are equipped with GPS and sen­sor tech­nol­o­gy so that plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts can be applied more effi­cient­ly. Machines equipped with drone tech­nol­o­gy also make the appli­ca­tion of plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts more precise.

Ulti­mate­ly, state-of-the-art tech­nol­o­gy used for apply­ing plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts plays a fun­da­men­tal part in agri­cul­ture today. It sup­ports farm­ers in opti­mis­ing the amount and use of chem­i­cals and in keep­ing the impact on the envi­ron­ment to a min­i­mum. Using GPS, sen­sor and drone tech­nol­o­gy, farm­ers are able to apply plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts more effec­tive­ly and pro­mote agri­cul­tur­al sustainability.

Strate­gies for apply­ing plant pro­tec­tion products

Farm­ers can employ a vari­ety of strate­gies for apply­ing plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts. These include the pre­ci­sion farm­ing already described, with its GPS and sen­sor tech­nol­o­gy, which can be used to specif­i­cal­ly tai­lor plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts to the needs of each field. This increas­es the effec­tive­ness of the prod­ucts and increas­es yields, while also keep­ing costs and the impact on the envi­ron­ment to a min­i­mum.  These advan­tages also apply to the fol­low­ing strategies.

Inte­grat­ed plant pro­tec­tion (Inte­grat­ed Pest Man­age­ment, IPM): IPM aims to keep pests and dis­eases at accept­able lev­els. To do this, bio­log­i­cal con­trol, cul­ti­va­tion meth­ods and plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts are combined.

Reg­u­lar rota­tion of plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts: This helps to pre­vent the build-up of resis­tance in pests or pathogens. Var­i­ous class­es of active ingre­di­ents and points of attack are used.

Tim­ing and dosage of plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts: Opti­mised appli­ca­tion of plant pro­tec­tion prod­ucts is based on weath­er fore­casts, pest and dis­ease mod­els, and mon­i­tor­ing systems.

Appli­ca­tion equip­ment: This includes noz­zles and sprayers to achieve the desired results.

Yas­min Moehring

Tel. +49 30 25 93 29–901
Mobil +49 151 17 28 18 69
moehring@365farmnet.com