Substantiation of recommendations for safe aerial application of pesticides used by unmanned aierial vehicles (UAVs)

Abstract

Annotation. UAVs have many advantages over traditional aerial application methods, including greater accuracy, efficiency, availability, cost-effectiveness, and safety, as well as improved data collection and real-time monitoring. The absence of appropriate rules and regulations that would govern the use of agrodrones can jeopardize the health of people, animals and plants, and can also negatively affect environmental objects. The aim is to substantiate recommendations for the safe aerial application of pesticides using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Field research was conducted in the Vinnytsia, Kyiv, and Zhytomyr regions of Ukraine in 2019-2022 using the most common models of agricultural drones DJI Agras T16 and XAG XPlanet 2020. Statistical processing of the results was carried out using a package of licensed statistical programs IBM SPSS Statistics Base v.22, Jupyter Notebook 6.4.8 and Python 3.11. Based on studies we have conducted, we recommend maintaining the following protective zones for various objects: 500 m from settlements, animal husbandry complexes, work sites dedicated to the manual care and cultivation of agricultural crops, reservoirs and recreational areas; from fishing reservoirs, open sources of water supply, grazing places for domestic animals, objects of the nature reserve fund, areas for sowing crops that are used for food without heat treatment – 2 km; from the place of permanent residence of honey bees – 3 km. If there are apiaries near the location of aerial application, it is necessary to notify the beekeepers in advance 12 hours before the start of application, so that the beekeeper has time to take measures for the safety of the bees. The point of remote piloting of the UAV (ground control station of the drone and refueling of the sprayer tank) must be located at a distance of at least 25 m from the field border. Thus, we have developed recommendations that will simplify the use of agricultural drones, a promising technique for the agro-industrial complex, while minimizing risks for workers, the population, and the environment. The hygienic aspect of the use of UAVs needs further comprehensive and detailed study.