Proposed Egyptian Standard of Spraying Application of Pesticide and its Alternatives on Certain Orchard Pests

Modern application techniques ensure that Pesticide reaches the target in satisfactory coverage and therefore reduces losses and environmental pollution. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization FAO / UN (2001) safety and quality standards for pesticide sprayers do not exist in all countries and even the existing standards for this type of equipment are often inappropriate for many countries. The present study is specified for orchards which could be considered as a nationalized version of the international standards applied already in the developed countries after re-adaptation to our local conditions, orchard varieties, climatic and social conditions, etc. This investigation depends on local data about this subject were collected by means of questionnaires covering five governorates in the delta and upper Egypt. The second part is the proposed standard and recommendations supporting the bio-efficacy of best control in a clean environment. The standard was divided from the general scheme of work to be followed strictly by the pest control team in order to a chive the required satisfactory results and explanatory guidelines, consists of four parts: 1- Legislation of the pesticides, spraying techniques; 2- Determination and adjustment of proper spray parameters and calibration; 3- Technical requirement of sprayer/atomizer and test procedure and 4- Obligatory (compulsory) check of the spraying machines and its components as, well the assisting ground services. The most important recommendation to achieve satisfactory pest control results is to take immediate and serious action towards the official legislation of the whole aspect of the spraying application techniques used in Egypt, which include: Certification of spraying machines, licensing of the applicator, and obligatory checks on spraying operation and machine performance; to define and adjust proper spray parameters capable to give the required optimum coverage on the treated fruit trees.