AN INTELLIGENT SPRAYING SYSTEM FOR TREE FRUIT CROPS PEST MANAGEMENT: TECHNOLOGY ENHANCEMENT, EVALUATION, AND OUTREACH

This is an ARDP Research-Led project addressing the following CPPM focus areas: Plant Protection Tools and Tactics and IPM for Sustainable Communties. With the global population increasing, food demand and agricultural production sustainability are becoming challenges for the near future. Pesticide applications play an important role in crop production that can help reduce crop loss; however, can cause potential environmental issues. Tree fruits are high-value commodities, and the tree fruit industry is an important agricultural sector in the United States. Pest management is necssary for maintaining the sustainability of the industry. The primary goal of this study is to introduce an intelligent sprayer to tree fruit growers and technology enhancement for the spraying system to suit for tree canopy structures and orchard terrains in Pennsylvania. Three objectives will be conducted: 1) Integration of an intelligent spraying system and technology enhancement; 2) The performance evaluation of the intelligent spraying system for the efficacy of field control of insect and disease pests; and 3) Intelligent spraying sytsem stakeholder/grower outreach and evaluation of potential interest for adoption. Intelligent spraying technology is a new practice for the IPM implementation. The goal and objectives proposed in this project fit into the National IPM Road Map. With the fulfillment of the project, an intelligent sprayer would be sufficiently working in Pennsylvania typical tree fruit orchards. Even though the focus of this project will be only on apples and peaches, the technology and system developed can be potentially expanded to other tree fruit crops and agricultural crops.