Quantitative and economical assessment of effectiveness of electrostatic pesticide spraying

Electrostatic pesticide spraying (EPS) improves the adhesion characteristics of the pesticide solution to agricultural crops. If the adhesion characteristics are improved, the requisite amount of the pesticide to be sprayed can be reduced in comparison with the conventional spraying method that uses non-charged pesticide. In this research, disease (rust) control experiments were carried out to substantiate the effectiveness of the EPS from a statistical point of view. We sprayed pesticide to potted Japanese pear trees under calm condition. The numbers of the rust lesions on the pear leaves were counted at fixed intervals after spraying to investigate the difference of the results of the disease control. The t-tests were carried out for the populations of the various spraying times and applied voltages. It was statistically-derived that EPS can reduce the amounts of pesticide to be sprayed by 50 % in comparison with the non-EPS method. It is also estimated from the results that about 55,000 kL year(-1) of pesticides can be reduced for the Japanese pear cultivation in Tottori prefecture. Also, this means that the expense of the pear cultivation can be reduced by about 240 million yen (3 million USD) every year in Tottori prefecture by introducing EPS.