Optimisation of the Spraying Process of Strawberries under Varying Operational Conditions

Beata Cieniawska, Katarzyna Pentoś (), Piotr Komarnicki, Jasper Tembeck Mbah, Maciej Samelski and Marek Barć
Additional contact information
Beata Cieniawska: Institute of Agricultural Engineering, The Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 25 Norwida St., 50-375 Wrocław, Poland
Katarzyna Pentoś: Institute of Agricultural Engineering, The Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 25 Norwida St., 50-375 Wrocław, Poland
Piotr Komarnicki: Institute of Agricultural Engineering, The Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 25 Norwida St., 50-375 Wrocław, Poland
Jasper Tembeck Mbah: Institute of Agricultural Engineering, The Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 25 Norwida St., 50-375 Wrocław, Poland
Maciej Samelski: Institute of Agricultural Engineering, The Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 25 Norwida St., 50-375 Wrocław, Poland
Marek Barć: Institute of Agricultural Engineering, The Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 25 Norwida St., 50-375 Wrocław, Poland

Agriculture, 2024, vol. 14, issue 6, 1-15

Abstract: Effective spraying is essential for modern agricultural production, to ensure a high-quality and abundant harvest. Simultaneously, it is crucial to minimise the negative impact of crop protection products on the environment. To achieve this, it is necessary to implement the appropriate technical and technological parameters for the treatment and to consider the conditions under which the treatment is carried out. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the speed of the sprayer, the pressure of the liquid, and the type of nozzles, as well as air temperature and wind speed, in terms of the degree of coverage of the sprayed surfaces. The degree of coverage was analysed by spraying water-sensitive papers placed on the artificial plant, positioned to obtain horizontal and vertical surfaces. The study found that standard single flat fan nozzles provided greater coverage on upper horizontal surfaces, while standard nozzles were more effective for vertical transverse approach surfaces at lower fluid pressures and travel speeds. Neural networks were used to develop models of the relationships studied. Models with high accuracy for the validation data set were obtained in the case of the coverage of the vertical transverse leaving surface and the upper level surface (R = 0.93 and R = 0.86). These models were used to determine the optimum values of the technical parameters of the spraying process under the selected weather conditions. The maximum spray coverage (41.49%) was predicted for the XR nozzle under the following conditions: pressure = 200 kPa, driving speed = 1.4 m·s −1 , temperature = 21.73 °C and wind speed = 0.32 m·s −1 . Based on the sensitivity analysis of the neural models it was found that the greatest effect on the coverage of the vertical transverse leaving surface was observed for temperature and the coverage of the upper level surface was mostly influenced by driving speed.

Keywords: nozzle; coverage degree; machine learning; genetic algorithm; neural networks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/6/799/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/6/799/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:14:y:2024:i:6:p:799-:d:1399622

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().