A pesticide is a poison that is used to kill, destroy, repel, or prevent pests in plants.
Plant pests can be insects, fungi, weeds as well as some animals and birds.
Pesticides can be sprayed using a regular hose (sprayer) or using a special tank mounted on either a tractor or an airplane.
In order for the pesticide to work correctly there are important things to consider when preparing to spray or when spraying. Those things are the following:-
1..The stage of growth of distractions
To get the best effect, attack the pests while they are in the weak stage of their development according to their habitat, behavior and life cycle.
If you get it wrong, you can cause the insects to destroy the crops and they can also become resistant to the pesticide. Also, spraying herbicides while the weeds are mature fails to produce good results.
2. Toxic levels and volume per area (DOSE)
When using pesticides, make sure you read the instructions carefully so that you can use the correct dose of poison in the correct volume of water.
If you increase the dose of the poison, it causes an effect on the plant, the environment, on the consumer and also increases the cost as more pesticides will be needed for a small area.
In addition, if you reduce the level of poison, it leads to the failure of the intended goal and finally also makes the distractions poisonous.
3. Target target areas
Use different methods to spray pesticides depending on the target areas.
For example, if you are preventing insects that live under the leaves of a plant make sure you lower your nozzle and turn it up so that it sprays well under the leaf.
4. The weather
The wind causes the droplets to be blown and sent to unwanted places. So when you spray, make sure the weather is calm without strong wind. In addition, there are some poisons whose strength decreases after it rains shortly after being sprayed.
Spray when there is no sign of rain in the near future. There are also some weed poisons that should not be sprayed when the leaves/weeds have dew.
5. Proper type of pipe
The choice of sprinkler hose is very important as there are some plants that grow long and make you unable to use the hose on your back.
For example; mangoes, cashews, oranges, avocados. So use the appropriate pipe according to the type of crop.
6. How to walk while spraying (with a pipe on the back)
The sprayer should be careful how to walk while spraying, if he is not careful there is a possibility of skipping some parts.
Walking too fast without attention causes the drug to not reach the target areas correctly, while walking too slowly leads to too much poison being used in a small area.
7 . Using correct and certified pesticides/registered by the relevant authority
When using a pesticide, make sure you use a registered pesticide to avoid using fake ones. The authority responsible for the registration of pesticides in Tanzania is the Tropical pesticides research institute (TPRI). On the pesticide packaging check the following marks for correct placement.
- A type of pesticide
- Instructions for pesticide use
- Lifetime appeal (date of manufacture/expiration)
- Manufacturer
- Distributor
Identification number- TPRI registration number and logo
- Caution
- Language – Kiswahili/English
8. The type of sprayer (nozzle) you use
Nozzles are one side of a compressed tube where the liquid comes out as a jet.
In simple language, sprinklers are known as NOZZLES , which is where the pesticide mixture occurs and reaches the plant.
The size of the droplets from the nozzle depends on the type of target disruptor targeted. So in order to make it easier for the farmer to identify what kind of drops are needed, it is good to know the colors of the nozzles and their use.
Nozzles are distinguished by different colors according to the size of the drops and the intended function. The colors used in the nozzle are:- BLUE, RED, YELLOW, GREEN, WHITE AND ORANGE