Environmentally Optimised Sprayer (EOS)--A software application for comprehensive assessment of environmental safety features of sprayers.

Despite technological progress in pesticide application equipment, chemical crop protection continues to contribute to environmental pollution. Water is at risk of contamination with pesticides from point and diffuse sources and could be reduced to a great extent with a better sprayer design. The sprayer manufacturers and pesticide applicators need to take more responsibility for the prevention of water pollution and therefore they have to make environmentally responsible decisions at different stages, from designing to servicing sprayers. The objective of the presented work was to develop an interactive application that would support decisions made by sprayer manufacturers during the production process, and by pesticide applicators when selecting and operating the sprayers. The EOS (Environmentally Optimised Sprayer) is an application evaluating the risk mitigation potential of sprayers based on their technological features, within five risk areas, representing sources of pollution: (i) Inside Contamination; (ii) Outside Contamination; (iii) Filling; (iv) Spray Loss & Drift; (v) Remnants. The evaluator completes the EOS questionnaire by checking for the technical solutions identified in the evaluated sprayer and the result reflects the sprayer quality in terms of potential environmental risk mitigation. The EOS tool also proved its awareness raising facility and educative value when used during training activities and university courses.

Proposal on a sustainable strategy to avoid point source pollution of water with plant protection products.

Based on the results and lessons learned from the TOPPS project (Training the Operators to prevent Pollution from Point Sources), a proposal on a sustainable strategy to avoid point source pollution from Plant Protection Products (PPPs) was made. Within this TOPPS project (2005-2008), stakeholders were interviewed and research and analysis were done in 6 pilot catchment areas (BE, FR, DE, DK, IT, PL). Next, there was a repeated survey on operators' perception and opinion to measure changes resulting from TOPPS activities and good and bad practices were defined based on the Best Management Practices (risk analysis). Aim of the proposal is to suggest a strategy considering the differences between countries which can be implemented on Member State level in order to avoid PPP pollution of water through point sources. The methodology used for the up-scaLing proposal consists of the analysis of the current situation, a gap analysis, a consistency analysis and organisational structures for implementation. The up-scaling proposal focuses on the behaviour of the operators, on the equipment and infrastructure available with the operators. The proposal defines implementation structures to support correct behaviour through the development and updating of Best Management Practices (BMPs) and through the transfer and the implementation of these BMPs. Next, the proposal also defines requirements for the improvement of equipment and infrastructure based on the defined key factors related to point source pollution. It also contains cost estimates for technical and infrastructure upgrades to comply with BMPs.