For many farms pesticide purchases constitute a major portion of their cash flow (>$1/acre/week for a potato farm, for example). Reducing this drain on resources by only 50% could dramatically change the economics of farming for many operations while reducing the environmental load by the same proportion. Pesticide applications impose other constraints on the whole-farm system, which can be relaxed by reducing AI rates. For example, increased use of cover crops in no-till systems, greater diversity in rotational systems, and use of living mulches are all facilitated by reduced herbicide application.

The vast majority of pesticide application machinery in use today employs technology more than a century old: atomized sprays from hydraulic nozzles. It is an enormously wasteful technology, but it is inexpensive, easy to operate, and simple to maintain. Estimates of the efficiency of hydraulic sprayers range from <0.001% for insecticides to ~1% for herbicides. No application system or formulation improvement has overcome this at an acceptable cost. Several European governments have mandated a 50% reduction in pesticide usage in agriculture and the same could happen here. This goal can be achieved without government intervention by doubling the application efficiency using existing technology.

We have built and started testing a new "Double Nozzle" sprayer (DNS) that is consistently effective at application rates between 30-50% label rate (Click here to see the data.) It utilizes existing hydraulic nozzle technology with which farmers are already familiar and consists of an inexpensive modification to existing sprayers that increases application efficiency by up to 300%. Widespread adoption of the DNS could substantially alter the amount of pesticide entering the environment while substantially reducing off-farm inputs.