APPLICATION OF 2009/127/EC AND 2009/128/EC DIRECTIVES IN SARDINIA (ITALY): RESULTS ON SPRAYING MACHINES

The use of pesticides in agriculture may affect human health and environment. For that reason, several initiatives were realized in order to lead the proposal of European Commission for a Directive on the sustainable use of pesticides. At European scale the EU Directive 127/2009 amendment of the machinery and EU Directive 128/2009 on sustainable use of pesticides were published. The first one requires as guarantee human and environmental safety the use of EC typeapproval certificate. The Directive 2009/128/EC was transposed in the Legislative Decree n° 150 of 14 August 2012, in that was required the implementation of policies and actions to reduce the risks and impacts of pesticide use on human health and environment (National Action Plan-NAP) at national scale, and in Regional Resolution n°4/62/2009 at local scale (Sardinia). According to these regional resolution, LAORE agency was involved in the functional control plan realization and in the spraying machines calibration. In this study were reported the results of the collaboration between LAORE agency and Agricultural Department of Sassari (Land Engineering Section) in “Application of proximal and remote sensing technologies in precision viticulture in Sardinia” project, founded by Regional Law n°7 of 7 April 2012. Preliminary information concerned 115 farms in the Centre and Southern Sardinia, with 115 spraying machines, 25 of them using in viticulture. The major part of those farms joined to the Regional Development Program (RDP), provided in Measure 214 Action 6 “Integrated Production”, and have adhered to the functional control of sprayers voluntarily. The 72% of farmers were informed about 2009/127/EC and 2009/128/EC Directives. The 68% of sprayers machines were provided to be CE compliant, on the other hand the 31% were not CE compliant and in the 1% of the analyzed farms there were no available data. Park farm machinery considered were subdivided in three age classes: from 0 to 10 years, from 10 to 20 years and from 20 to 30 years. The first class involved the 36% of the sprayers, 23% and 17% for the second and the third class, respectively, and the remnants 24% was unavailable. Moreover, the most frequently problems that not complied with the role concerned: the gauge pressure typology, the inadequate nozzles, the possibility to read the liquid level in the main tank, command module positioning and the irregular rate flow emissions.