EVALUATION OF A DEVICE FOR THE APPLICATION OF PESTICIDES ON MECHANIZED COFFEE CROPS (Coffea arabica L.)

The coffee crop, while representing an important agricultural activity in Brazil, presents enormous technological challenges. This work aimed to evaluate a device that is attached to airblast sprayers for the application of pesticides on coffee crops. The developed equipment, called 'wing', was developed in such a way as to improve the deposition of the spray mainly on the lower internal parts of the plants. It was evaluated with regard to its efficiency in deposition and penetration in the lower, middle and upper parts of the plants, by means of the addition of a tracer for spectrophotometric quantification. The trial was carried out in a randomized block design, with four replications, in factorial model (2x2): two spray volumes (1000 and 600l.ha(-9), and absence or presence of the 'wing'. The device proved to be simple, robust and of easy coupling to the traditional hydro-pneumatic sprayer. It can be used in coffee crops of different architecture and planting density. It was efficient in increasing the deposition in the lower inner canopy of the coffee crop, and in so doing it is an important tool in the improvement of pesticide treatments aimed mainly at this area of the plant, without increasing the runoff onto the soil.