What do we expect to achieve?
The PERFECT project has ambitious goals, but fully feasible. With the 8 active partners and all the help of many farmers and pesticide applicators we will success in our mission.
Expected results
It is expected to obtain a general procedure for pesticide application with low emissions to the atmosphere and hence with low impact over people by using OVRA tools and SDRT.
Due to the proper selection of the spray volume rate thought the use of OVRA tools a reduction of plant protection products (PPP) released to the environment of 20% in Valencia (159 tons/year), 9% in Catalunya (190 tons/year), 9% in Piagmonte (93 tons/year) and 8% in Languedoc (321 tons/year) will be achieved. This will lead to the subsequent:
- Reduction of GHG emissions: 15% in Valencia (1650 tons/year), 15% in Catalunya (286 tons/year), 15% in Piagmonte (495 tons/year) and 10% in Languedoc (93 tons/year).
- Reduction of cost during application process: 26% in Valencia (382 €/ha-year), 9% in Catalunya (68 €/ha-year), 9% in Piagmonte (81 €/ha-year) and 8% in Languedoc (46 €/ha-year).
- Reduction of water consumption and the consequent water footprint: 13% in Valencia (352770 m3/year), 8% in Catalunya (21079 m3/year), 9% in Piagmonte (35500 m3/year) and 8% in Languedoc (8692 m3/year).
- Between 10-19% decrease in gasoil consumption and therefore a 10-19% reduction in the Carbon footprint.
- A reduction of pesticide airborne drift between 25-50%. Therefore, a reduction between 25-50% of pesticide risk for bystanders.
- A reduction of sedimenting drift between 10-20%. Therefore, a reduction between 10-20% of pesticide risk for wild aquatic and terrestrial organisms located out of the orchard.
- Identification of inert compounds of PPP and the main secondary products from PPP degradation in air.
- Development and validation of a new high-time resolution instrument for measuring direct pesticides drift. Reduction of 80-90% of sampling and analysis time of pesticides and related compounds compared to currently used classic direct and indirect methodologies. A business plan for a possible future commercialization of the new DMA-MS technology to determine pesticides in soil and air, make studies of pesticides drift and/or to assess the application of pesticides from a health standpoint in real agricultural conditions will be launched.
- A database about airborne drift values measured using both indirect (with tracers) and direct method (measuring pesticides and related compounds) in the atmosphere, and the relationship between them.
- To obtain Hazard Quotients less than 1 (no adverse effects) for all compounds when using drift reducing techniques in the studied population by risk assessment studies.