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Crop sprayers
\"Big farms need big machines, and crop sprayers are some of the biggest. Farmers use these timesaving devices to spread substances such as fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides on their crops. While readers learn about the different kinds of crop sprayers, their many parts, and their importance to the farm industry, they'll be impressed by the colorful photographs of the machines in action, including one in the air. The high-interest topic also touches on key science and technology topics.\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Concepts and applications of foliar spray for microbial inoculants
Damages of the (agro)ecosystem by extensive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the global dying of bee populations possibly linked to pesticide spraying, and stricter regulations for pesticide use together with successful use of microbials in IPM programs are pushing on the development and commercialization of new microbial products and a large and growing biostimulants and biocontrol market. This review focuses on microbial inoculants including bacteria, fungi, and viruses used as biostimulant or biocontrol agent for foliar application and covers all important steps from inoculant development to successful field application. Topics presented comprise typical spraying equipment including the importance of the spraying process and relating effects, furthermore formulation development including classification and adjuvants, and thirdly regulatory aspects as currently applied or under discussion. Microbial inoculants for foliar spray reported in scientific literature are summarized and contrasted with selected commercial products. Special attention is given to factors most important in microbial spray: (a) type of active ingredient (bacteria, fungi, viruses), (b) mode of action (ingestion, contact, competition), (c) interaction with the plant leaf surface, (d) droplet size in terms of microbe concentration and leaf coverage, and (e) environmental conditions during spraying. Finally, we want to emphasize that timely administration is of utmost importance for successful spraying and maximum efficacy. This might be supported by weather stations and disease/pest models as an important step towards precision farming.
Journal Article
Distribution characteristics on droplet deposition of wind field vortex formed by multi-rotor UAV
When the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is used for aerial spraying, the downwash airflow generated by the UAV rotor will interact with the crop canopy and form a conical vortex shape in the crop plant. The size of the vortex will directly affect the outcome of the spraying operation. Six one-way spraying were performed by the UAV in a rice field with different but random flying altitude and velocities within the optimal operational range to form different vortex patterns. The spraying reagent was clear water, which was collected by water sensitive paper (WSP), and then the WSP was analyzed to study the droplets deposition effects in different vortex states. The results showed that the formation of the vortex significantly influenced the droplet deposition. To be specific, the droplet deposition amount in the obvious-vortex (OV) state was about 1.5 times of that in the small-scale (SV) vortex state, and 7 times of that in the non-vortex (NV) state. In the OV state, the droplets mainly deposited directly below and on both sides of the route. The deposition amount, coverage rate and droplet size increased from top to bottom of the crops with the deposition amount, coverage rate, and volume median diameter (VMD) ranging 0.204-0.470 μL/cm2, 3.31%-7.41%, and 306-367μm, respectively. In the SV state, droplets mainly deposited in the vortex area directly below the route. The deposition amount in the downwind direction was bigger than that in the upwind direction. The maximum of deposition amount, coverage rate and droplet size were found in the middle layer of the crops, the range are 0.177-0.334μL/cm2, 2.71%-5.30%, 295-370μm, respectively. In the NV state, the droplet mainly performed drifting motion, and the average droplet deposition amount in the downwind non-effective region was 29.4 times of that in the upwind non-effective region and 8.7 times of the effective vortex region directly below the route. The maximum of deposition amount, coverage rate and droplet size appeared in the upper layer of the crop, the range are 0.006-0.132μL/cm2, 0.17%-1.82%, 120-309μm, respectively, and almost no droplet deposited in the middle and lower part of the crop. The coefficient of variation (CV) of the droplet deposition amount was less than 40% in the state of obvious-vortex and small-scale vortex, and the worst penetration appeared in the non-vortex amounting to 65.97%. This work offers a basis for improving the spraying performance of UAV.
Journal Article
Coverage Path Planning Method for Agricultural Spraying UAV in Arbitrary Polygon Area
In the coverage path planning (CPP) problem of an agricultural spraying UAV, a margin reduction algorithm was designed first to address special situations such as ditches and channels within the operational terrain. Regarding the particularity of a concave polygon area, an algorithm based on topology mapping was developed to judge the concave points of the concave polygon area, and the path with special concave points was scheduled. For the evaluation of the pesticide spraying mission, the flight distance and extra coverage ratio were the most appropriate optimization objectives. Therefore, this paper selected these two indicators to form a fitness function, then found the optimal operating heading angle of the mission after iterative optimization. Finally, the CPP for an agricultural spraying UAV in an arbitrary polygon area under the optimal heading angle was realized. The simulation and flight test results showed that the CPP method could significantly shorten the flight distance and reduce additional coverage, then avoid energy consumption and pesticide waste. In addition, the engineering practicability of the method was verified in this paper. This method can be popularized and widely used for an agricultural spraying UAV, which has great engineering application value.
Journal Article
Functional redundancy of two ABC transporter proteins in mediating toxicity of Bacillus thuringiensis to cotton bollworm
Evolution of pest resistance reduces the efficacy of insecticidal proteins from the gram-positive bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) used widely in sprays and transgenic crops. Better understanding of the genetic basis of resistance is needed to more effectively monitor, manage, and counter pest resistance to Bt toxins. Here we used CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing to clarify the genetics of Bt resistance and the associated effects on susceptibility to other microbial insecticides in one of the world's most damaging pests, the cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera). We discovered that CRISPR-mediated knockouts of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter genes HaABCC2 and HaABCC3 together caused >15,000-fold resistance to Bt toxin Cry1Ac, whereas knocking out either HaABCC2 or HaABCC3 alone had little or no effect. Inheritance of resistance was autosomal and recessive. Bioassays of progeny from interstrain crosses revealed that one wild type allele of either HaABCC2 or HaABCC3 is sufficient to sustain substantial susceptibility to Cry1Ac. In contrast with previous results, susceptibility to two insecticides derived from bacteria other than Bt (abamectin and spinetoram), was not affected by knocking out HaABCC2, HaABCC3, or both. The results here provide the first evidence that either HaABCC2 or HaABCC3 protein is sufficient to confer substantial susceptibility to Cry1Ac. The functional redundancy of these two proteins in toxicity of Cry1Ac to H. armigera is expected to reduce the likelihood of field-evolved resistance relative to disruption of a toxic process where mutations affecting a single protein can confer resistance.
Journal Article
Pesticide application has little influence on coding and non-coding gene expressions in rice
Agricultural insects are one of the major threats to crop yield. It is a known fact that pesticide application is an extensive approach to eliminate insect pests, and has severe adverse effects on environment and ecosystem; however, there is lack of knowledge whether it could influence the physiology and metabolic processes in plants. Here, we systemically analyzed the transcriptomic changes in rice after a spray of two commercial pesticides, Abamectin (ABM) and Thiamethoxam (TXM). We found only a limited number of genes (0.91%) and (1.24%) were altered by ABM and TXM respectively, indicating that these pesticides cannot dramatically affect the performance of rice. Nevertheless, we characterized 1140 Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs) interacting with 105 long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) that can be impacted by the two pesticides, suggesting their certain involvement in response to farm chemicals. Moreover, we detected 274 alternative splicing (AS) alterations accompanied by host genes expressions, elucidating a potential role of AS in control of gene transcription during insecticide spraying. Finally, we identified 488 transposons that were significantly changed with pesticides treatment, leading to a variation in adjacent coding or non-coding transcripts. Altogether, our results provide valuable insights into pest management through appropriate timing and balanced mixture, these pesticides have no harmful effects on crop physiology over sustainable application of field drugs.
Journal Article