Meaning of Agricultural Sprayers
Sprayer in agriculture refers to a farm tool, device, or machine used for the application of herbicides, fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, and other agrochemicals to protect crops and animals from pests, weeds, and diseases.
Agricultural sprayers are indispensable equipment used in the farming industries from land preparation to crop maintenance, the sprayer is gradually becoming an essential part of farming endeavors.
The equipment is commonly used by most farmers as the first line of weed control on the farm to replace the need for manual clearing, and slashing tools before carrying out tillage practices. It is also used to incorporate agrochemicals during and after land preparation.
These farm tools and machines come in various sizes and types. Some are hand-held, backpack or manual sprayers, trailed or tractor-mounted sprayers, Aerial dusters, and helicopter sprayers. Drone sprayers with modern facilities such as GPS, sensors and cameras to measure, monitor, and map the farm area for precise sprayers also exist.
Whether in commercial or subsistence farming, agricultural sprayers have helped minimize the use of labor and other farm implements on the farm. As weeding, irrigation can be effectively done by the sprayer.
In developing countries, agricultural sprayers have drastically reduced the use of simple farm tools as there are no households where the knapsacks and hand atomizer sprayers are not found. The sprayer has gradually become an indispensable agricultural equipment across farming communities.
Even in organic agriculture where the use of synthetic chemicals is not encouraged, these sprayers are used for the applications of fermented compost or farmyard manure and other organic liquid fertilizers on the farm.
These machines remain paramount for the success of any agricultural enterprise as they are constructed and designed to spray liquid or dust agrochemical chemicals, water crops during drought, control weeds, spray essential nutrient elements for crop performance, protection, and spray essential ingredients during manufacturing and production processes.
Uses / Function Agricultural Sprayer
The importance, benefits, and uses of these machines in agriculture are:
Spraying of Disease Control Chemicals
Crop protection machines are vital equipment for spraying disease control chemicals such as fungicides, bactericides, and viricides. These agrochemicals cannot be sprayed through hand sprinkling except with the aid of these tools.
Whether it is liquid or powder chemicals, they can be dissolved in water to control crops and animal diseases. An agricultural sprayer becomes a veritable tool through which agrochemicals are sprayed for effective control of disease-causing organisms such as fungi, bacteria, viruses, and protozoa on the farm.
Pathogen reduce the value of agricultural crops and animals hence their control on the farm is extremely paramount.
Spraying of Herbicides
Effective weed control whether on the lawn, orchard, garden, or in the open field can only be done with the aid of agricultural sprayers
Unwanted grasses can be controlled with the help of these machines. Liquid and solid herbicides can be dissolved and mixed adequately with water to achieve efficient spraying. Whether it is contact, selective, or systematic herbicide, they can be dissolved and sprayed on the weed.
Application of Liquid Fertilizer
Fertilizers exist either in solid or liquid states. The solid fertilizers are applied by hand application while the liquid fertilizers are applied with the aid of the agricultural sprayers.
Essential nutrient elements are packed in liquid fertilizer dissolved in water and sprayed on the leaves of crops. Organic fertilizers such as green manure, farm yards, and compost manure can be fermented in water and used for spraying economic crops.
Foliar methods of fertilizer application provide essential nutrients to crops by offering efficient methods of supplementing nutrient requirements for growth and productivity.
Spraying of Pest Control Chemicals
Pests such as weevil, mealybugs, whiteflies, aphids, grasshoppers, and more can be effectively controlled with the aid of Agricultural sprayers.
These living organisms constitute a serious nuisance on the farm and can be completely eradicated with the use of pesticides, and this is made with the use of a sprayer.
Furthermore, animal parasites such as ticks, lice, and tsetse flies can be controlled by dissolving pesticides or insecticides in water and then spraying on the animals.
Fumigating the Farmstead
Animal pens, crop production areas, and administrative buildings require frequent fumigation against pests and disease-causing organisms.
Fumigation is a preventive measure adopted to keep pest and disease-causing organisms away from the environment. Weevil, mealybug, whitefly, aphid, grasshopper, tick, lice, and tsetse fly of mosquitoes, cockroaches, ants, bed bugs, and reptiles should be prevented from infesting the environment.
Fumigation can also act as both curative and preventive measures. In the curative measure, any pest or parasite available in the area when sprayed will be killed, while the preventive measure is to keep pests away from infesting that area for a certain period. The mist blow and the duster are very effective in fumigating the farmstead.
National Fumigation.
Certain national diseases and outbreaks of pests can be effectively controlled with the use of agricultural sprayers.
Pests that are known to constitute problems and are responsible for certain ailments all over a particular country can be termed national pests. These pests or disease-causing organisms can be controlled effectively with the use of an Aerial duster.
Irrigation Purpose
Agricultural sprayers can be used as a substitute to supplement water needed to crop during periods of drought or dry season.
Many powerful machine-powered sprayers are available in agriculture and can be used to irrigate crops on the farmstead. High-power sprayers can be used to reduce heat during the hot weather in the farm animals’ houses.
Precision Mapping and Spraying
Drone sprayers of various capacities have been developed and equipped with software that can be used for mapping and provide specific precision during spraying.
These modern drone sprayers are equipped with cameras and sensors that take aerial pictures of the farm to determine where to spray automatically. GPS drone sprayers are designed to measure and monitor the area of land sprayed with accuracy.
GPS, and censor sprayers can be effectively used to spray pesticides and fertilizers with precision without damaging crops.
Fire Control
High-power sprayers can be used to control fire on the farm or in the farmstead during fire outbreaks. Sprayers with good capacity can carry high volumes of water and are used to spray water to control fire outbreaks.
Aerial and tractor-mounted sprayers can be used as substitutes to supply water and spray water to fight fire.
Quality of Good Agricultural Sprayers
The quality of a good sprayer cannot be overemphasized. A good sprayer should contain the following qualities
- Produce Fine Droplets: a good sprayer should be able to produce fine droplets during spraying. Their internal and external effectiveness. The nozzle should be able to break the solution into fine particles to minimize the wastage of agrochemicals.
- Distribute Uniform Droplets: The sprayer chosen for agricultural purposes should be able to produce uniform droplets during operation. Sprayers that can not produce evenly distributed droplets will produce many pockets of the unsprayed area, thereby reducing the unit of the area to be prayed.
- Possess Sufficient Pressure: the sprayer should have a good pressure regulator and agitator to produce sufficient pressure. The sprayer should have satisfactory pressure to spray chemicals with acceptable pressure to ensure the effective distribution of chemical solutions to the plants.
- Produce the Good Drift: A good agricultural sprayer should be able to produce a good drift. The sprayer selected should have good liquid regulating mechanisms that can produce good drift to ensure effective spraying so as to reduce liquid wastage during application.
- Durability: fragile sprayers should be avoided, the sprayer selected should be durable and last long. Fragile sprayers can easily be damaged and cannot withstand rough usage. Frequent breakdown of sprayers will lead to an increase in the cost of production and lead to wastage of resources.
- Light Weighted: light-weighted sprayers should be selected, while heavy backpack sprayers should be avoided. The continuous usage of the heavy backpack sprayer will reduce efficiency, energy-wasting, and waste of chemicals.
- Easily Service and Repair: a good sprayer should be easy to work and repair. Sprayers that are complicated to repair and service should be avoided. The spare parts should be easily accessible and affordable to facilitate easy repair and service.
Classifications of Agricultural Sprayers
Sprayers in agriculture are classified by Shaw, as follows.
COMPONENTS OF AN AGRICULTURAL SPRAYER
The components of a sprayer consist of the following
- Pump
- Chemical tank
- agitator
- Air chamber
- pressure gauge
- Pressure regulator
- valves
- Strainer
- suction line
- delivery line
- nozzles
Get more detail on the components of an agricultural sprayer and their functions.
COMPONENTS OF AGRICULTURAL SPRAYER NOZZLE
A good sprayer should contain the following components. They are:
- Nozzles.
- Nozzle body
- Swirl plate
- Nozzle
- Strainer
- Spacer
Get more detail on Sprayer Nozzle Parts and Their Functions.
Types of Agricultural Sprayers
Agricultural Sprayers are classified according to the volume of liquid they can carry. They are
- High-volume sprayer (more than 400 liters/ha)
- Low-volume sprayer or medium sprayer (5 to 400 liters/ hectare)
- Ultra-low volume sprayer (ULV) spray (less than 5 liters/ha).
Ultra Low Volume / Hand Operated Agricultural Sprayer
These are sprayers designed to spray agrochemicals (such as insecticides, fungicides, pesticides, and herbicides) at a volume application rate of less than 5 liters per hectare.
They are manually operated sprayers and are used to apply chemicals to crops planted on rows such as cotton, cowpea, groundnuts, tobacco, and vegetables. The ULV sprayers consist of a tank, cut-off valve, nozzle, air pump, and pressure regulator.
When the air pump is pressurized by the hand pump, the compressed air pressures the solution from the tanks through the hose and comes out through the nozzles. Examples of the ULV are Hand Atomizer, Hand Compression Sprayer, and Knapsack Sprayer (Hand Operated).
They are the cheapest purchase compared to other types of sprayers for agricultural purposes. They help to spray very fine droplets of agrochemical that float in the air to achieve a target task, they are fast, efficient, and easy to carry. Many types of sprayers are used in the farming or agricultural industry.
Low-Pressure Agricultural Sprayers
Low-pressure sprayers are used to provide constant nozzle pressure. These sprayers come in different types, namely tractor-mounted, trailer-mounted, truck-mounted aircraft, and aircraft sprayers, depending on the vehicle and the size of the area to be sprayed.
When using a low-pressure sprayer it is necessary to select the right gallons that can fit into the vehicle to be mounted. For example, The Truck-mounted sprayer can carry up to 2,500 gallons in its tank and can be used to spray up to 60 feet While the Trailer-mounted sprayer carries 1000 gallons and can spray 12-50 feet which makes a medium sprayer.
Examples of low-pressure sprayers are Tractor-mounted sprayers and motorized knapsack sprayers. In comparison to other types of sprayers in this group, the tractor-mounted sprayer is the smallest with 150 to 500 gallon capacity.
High-Pressure Agricultural Sprayers
These are the most popular kinds of sprayers available to farmers across the globe. These sprayers are designed to spray agrochemicals (such as insecticides, fungicides, pesticides, and herbicides) at a volume application rate of about 400 to 500 liters per hectare.
These sprayers can be manually, mechanically, or power-operated. They have a pressure engine and hydraulic nozzle to spray dilute solutions of agrochemicals.
They are specially constructed or designed to spray tall trees and thick brush with high power. However, it can release pressures of about 1,000 psi.
Examples of these types of sprayers are hand sprayers, foot foot-operated sprayers, stirrup pump sprayers, rocker sprayers, lever-operated knapsack sprayers, and foot-operated High-Pressure power Sprayers.