The first time we were lucky enough to visit producers in European countries such as Austria, Switzerland and Italy, we were surprised to see that in each case they used equipment with similar technology to that in Chile (hydropneumatic atomizers) and that the equipment was operated by the producers themselves; of course, the production units were small-scale and their sales were destined for the local market and, in small quantities, for export to other nearby countries within the continent. We were also surprised that the thresholds for “acceptable” economic damage from pests and/or diseases were greater than 0, a situation very different from our thresholds since in Chile we still have to deal with quarantine barriers for all the most demanding destination markets.
Other very important guidelines that caught our attention were the restrictions on the use of active ingredients, environmental care, such as reducing drift, avoiding contamination of water courses, air pollution, care of pollinating agents, among other mandatory guidelines.
In order to comply with each of these guidelines and maintain high application effectiveness, producers, health and environmental authorities, universities and other organizations developed application techniques decades ago that allow the availability of the necessary amount of active ingredients and water for the applications. It was very surprising to observe that such important pests as moths, scale insects, among others, and various diseases were effectively controlled by applying volumes of water well below those used in Chile.
This experience, which has surely been observed by other technicians who have been in countries where effective applications are developed and with water volumes adjusted to each stage of development, has gone a long way to generating the recommendations that today some producers have considered implementing after many years of testing and implementing improvements in the application equipment they have in the field.
One such experience is the testimony of Felipe Rojas, General Manager of Agrícola El Durazno and Agrícola Las Vegas in the Las Cabras area, who after several years wants to share his productive experience linked to the proper use of atomizing equipment, care for the environment, compliance with national regulations to avoid drift, ongoing training of his staff and the proper use of application volumes at each stage of development of the crops he is in charge of.
Until recently, for us, the correct use of chemical products was based on choosing the most suitable product, using the correct dose and applying it at the right time.
However, we did not realize that, due to poor calibration of the equipment, the percentage of products applied to the target was very low and that pollution to the environment, caused by drift, was not being properly considered. In fact, in some areas we began to have problems with our neighbors, due to the pollution we caused them.
We needed to establish improvements in the efficiency of our applications in order to reduce our environmental pollution problems to the minimum possible. To do this, it was necessary to seek advice from experts in the diagnosis and calibration of application equipment, and we decided to work with the company Peulla.
To begin, each of the components of our application equipment was evaluated, from an interview with the applicators and those in charge of these tasks, to a thorough review of each of the equipment components, including the nozzles.
This is how we were able to verify that the deficiencies of our equipment consisted of a lack of maintenance, also that some components had already reached the end of their useful life and, finally, many of our nozzles were producing different flow rates due to constant use in applications.
Once the evaluations were completed, we were advised to make changes to some components in our equipment, from pressure gauges to nozzles. In addition, we provided training to all the human team involved in the applications.
Once the first stage was completed, a new challenge arose, which consisted of reducing our volumes to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the products.
By working with a company with vast experience in the application of chemical products, such as Peulla, we were able to significantly reduce environmental pollution from drift; in addition, by reducing our wetting, we had savings on products dosed by concentration, which was very important in the final cost of the crop's phytosanitary program. On the other hand, when the product dose is per treated ha, using a lower wetting will also imply a better use of the application equipment's days since it will cover more surface area with the same amount of water.
Last but not least, our neighbors are happy today.
We want to continue working with Peulla, as we have made significant progress in the efficiency and effectiveness of our applications. There will always be room for further improvement and to achieve goals never seen before.
