HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Aerial application, or what is informally referred to as crop dusting, involves spraying crops with crop protection products from an
agricultural aircraft An agricultural aircraft is an aircraft that has been built or converted for agricultural use – usually aerial application of pesticides (crop dusting) or fertilizer (aerial topdressing); in these roles they are referred to as "crop duster ...
. Planting certain types of seed are also included in aerial application. The specific spreading of fertilizer is also known as ''
aerial topdressing Aerial topdressing is the aerial application of fertilisers over farmland using agricultural aircraft. It was developed in New Zealand in the 1940s and rapidly adopted elsewhere in the 1950s. Origins Previous aerial applications The first ...
''in some countries. Many countries have severely limited aerial application of pesticides and other products because of environmental and public health hazards like spray drift; most notably, the European Union banned it outright with a few highly restricted exceptions in 2009, effectively ending the practice in all member states. Agricultural aircraft are highly specialized, purpose-built aircraft. Today's agricultural aircraft are often powered by turbine engines of up to and can carry as much as of crop protection product. Helicopters are sometimes used, and some aircraft serve double duty as water bombers in areas prone to
wildfires A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identif ...
. These aircraft are referred to as SEAT, or "single engine air tankers."


History


Aerial seed sowing

The first known aerial application of agricultural materials was by John Chaytor, who in 1906 spread seed over a swamped valley floor in
Wairoa Wairoa is a town and territorial authority district in New Zealand's North Island. The town is the northernmost in the Hawke's Bay region, and is located on the northern shore of Hawke Bay at the mouth of the Wairoa River and to the west of ...
, New Zealand using a hot air balloon with mobile tethers. Aerial sowing of seed still continues to this day with cover crop applications and rice planting.


Crop dusting

The first known use of a heavier-than-air machine to disperse products occurred on August 3, 1921. Crop dusting was developed under the joint efforts of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the
U.S. Army Signal Corps The United States Army Signal Corps (USASC) is a branch of the United States Army that creates and manages communications and information systems for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860, the brainchild of Ma ...
' research station at McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio. Under the direction of McCook engineer Etienne Dormoy, a
United States Army Air Service The United States Army Air Service (USAAS)Craven and Cate Vol. 1, p. 9 (also known as the ''"Air Service"'', ''"U.S. Air Service"'' and before its legislative establishment in 1920, the ''"Air Service, United States Army"'') was the aerial war ...
Curtiss JN4 Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company (1909 – 1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer originally founded by Glenn Hammond Curtiss and Augustus Moore Herring in Hammondsport, New York. After significant commercial success in its first decad ...
Jenny piloted by
John A. Macready John Arthur Macready (October 14, 1887 – September 15, 1979) was an American test pilot and aviator. He was the only three-time recipient of the Mackay Trophy, receiving the trophy three consecutive years. Macready won the MacKay Trophy th ...
was modified at McCook Field to spread lead arsenate to kill catalpa sphinx
caterpillars Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Symph ...
at a
catalpa ''Catalpa'', commonly called catalpa or catawba, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae, native to warm temperate and subtropical regions of North America, the Caribbean, and East Asia. Description Most ''Catalpa'' are decidu ...
farm near
Troy, Ohio Troy is a city in and the county seat of Miami County, Ohio, United States, located north of Dayton. The population was 26,305 at the 2020 census, making it the largest city in Miami County and the 55th largest city in Ohio; it is part of the Da ...
in the United States. The first test was considered highly successful. The first commercial cropdusting operations began in 1924 in Macon, Georgia by Huff-Daland Crop Dusting, which was co-founded by McCook Field test pilot Lt. Harold R. Harris. Use of
insecticide Insecticides are substances used to kill insects. They include ovicides and larvicides used against insect eggs and larvae, respectively. Insecticides are used in agriculture, medicine, industry and by consumers. Insecticides are claimed to ...
and
fungicide Fungicides are biocidal chemical compounds or biological organisms used to kill parasitic fungi or their spores. A fungistatic inhibits their growth. Fungi can cause serious damage in agriculture, resulting in critical losses of yield, quality, ...
for crop dusting slowly spread in the Americas and, to a lesser extent, other nations in the 1930s. The name 'crop dusting' originated here, as actual dust was spread across the crops. Today, aerial applicators use liquid crop protection products in very small doses.


Top dressing

Aerial topdressing is the aerial application of fertilisers over farmland using agricultural aircraft. It was developed in New Zealand in the 1940s and rapidly adopted elsewhere in the 1950s.


Purpose-built aircraft

In 1951, Leland Snow designed the first aircraft specifically built for aerial application, the S-1. In 1957, The Grumman G-164 Ag-Cat was the first aircraft designed by a major company for agricultural aviation. Currently, the most common agricultural aircraft are the
Air Tractor Air Tractor Inc. is a United States aircraft manufacturer based in Olney, Texas. Founded in 1978, the company began manufacturing a new agricultural aircraft derived from the S-2B aircraft (designed by founder Leland Snow's previous comp ...
, Cessna Ag-wagon,
Gippsland GA200 The Gippsland GA-200 Fatman is a low-wing single-engine agricultural aircraft built by GippsAero. Development Based loosely on the Piper Pawnee, the first two prototypes used damaged Pawnee frames. The third prototype, built in 1992, was t ...
,
Grumman Ag Cat The Grumman G-164 Ag Cat is a single-engined biplane agricultural aircraft, developed by Grumman in the 1950s. Development In 1955, Grumman preliminary design engineers Joe Lippert and Arthur Koch proposed the design for a "purpose-built" cr ...
,
PZL-106 KRUK The PZL-106 Kruk ( en, Raven) is a Polish agricultural aircraft designed and built by WSK PZL Warszawa-Okęcie (later PZL "Warszawa-Okęcie" and now EADS-PZL). Design and development The PZL-106 was developed as a modern agricultural aircraft ...
,
M-18 Dromader The PZL-Mielec M-18 ''Dromader'' (Polish: "Dromedary") is a single engine agricultural aircraft that is manufactured by PZL-Mielec in Poland. The aircraft is used mainly as a cropduster or firefighting machine. Development PZL-Mielec, then known ...
,
PAC Fletcher Pac or PAC may refer to: Military * Rapid Deployment Force (Malaysia), an armed forces unit * Patriot Advanced Capability, of the MIM-104 Patriot missile * Civil Defense Patrols (''Patrullas de Autodefensa Civil''), Guatemalan militia and parami ...
,
Piper PA-36 Pawnee Brave The Piper PA-36 Pawnee Brave is a 1970s American single-engined, low-wing, propeller-driven agricultural plane built by Piper Aircraft Piper Aircraft, Inc. is a manufacturer of general aviation aircraft, located at the Vero Beach Regional A ...
,
Embraer EMB 202 Ipanema The Embraer EMB 202 Ipanema is a Brazilian agricultural aircraft used for aerial application, particularly crop dusting. It is produced by Indústria Aeronáutica Neiva, a subsidiary of Embraer located in Botucatu, Brazil. The latest version o ...
, and Rockwell Thrush Commander, but multi-purpose helicopters are also used.


Unmanned aerial application

Since the late 1990s, unmanned aerial vehicles have also been used for agricultural spraying. This phenomenon started in Japan and South Korea, where mountainous terrain and relatively small family-owned farms required lower-cost and higher-precision spraying. , the use of UAV crop dusters, such as the
Yamaha R-MAX The Yamaha R-MAX is a Japanese unmanned helicopter developed by the Yamaha Motor Company in the 1990s. The gasoline-powered aircraft has a two-bladed rotor and is remote-controlled by a line-of-sight user. It was designed primarily for agricult ...
, is being expanded to the United States for use in spraying at vineyards.


Concerns

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences keeps track of relevant research. Historically, there has been concerns about the effects of aerial applications of pesticides and the chemicals' effects as they spread in the air. For example, the aerial application of
mancozeb Mancozeb is a dithiocarbamate non-systemic agricultural fungicide with multi-site, protective action on contact. It is a combination of two other dithiocarbamates: maneb and zineb. The mixture controls many fungal diseases in a wide range of field ...
is likely a source of concern for pregnant women.


Bans

Since the 1970s, multiple countries started to limit or ban the aerial application of pesticides, fertilizers, and other products out of environmental and public health concerns, in particular from spray drift. Most notably, in 2009, the European Union prohibited aerial spraying of pesticides with a few highly-restricted exceptions in article 9 of '' Directive 2009/128/EC of the European Parliament and of the
Council A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nat ...
establishing a framework for Community action to achieve the sustainable use of pesticides'', which effectively ended most aerial application in all member states and overseas territories.


Guidelines

The United States Environmental Protection Agency provides guideline documents and hosts webinars about best practices for aerial application. In 2010, the United States Forest Service collected public comments to use within a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), which was developed because the Montana Federal District Court ruled that aerial application of fire retardants during wildfires violated the Endangered Species Act.


See also

* Pesticide application *
Pesticide drift Pesticide drift refers to the unintentional diffusion of pesticides and the potential negative effects of pesticide application, including off-target contamination due to spray drift as well as runoff from plants or soil. This can lead to damage ...
*
Sprayer A sprayer is a device used to spray a liquid, where sprayers are commonly used for projection of water, weed killers, crop performance materials, pest maintenance chemicals, as well as manufacturing and production line ingredients. In agricult ...
*
Ultra-low volume Ultra-low volume (ULV) application of pesticides has been defined as spraying at Volume Application Rate(VAR) of less than 5 L/ha for field crops or less than 50 L/ha for tree/bush crops. VARs of 0.25 – 2 L/ha are typical for aerial ULV appl ...
spray application * Aerial spraying of herbicides in Colombia


References

{{Authority control Agriculture Crop protection Occupations in aviation Aerial application