A free online tool that helps farmers and growers manage spray use on their land has been upgraded with a mapping system to identify environmentally sensitive areas.
Developed by New Zealand agritech firm HortPlus, the SprayPlan Manager makes it easier for farmers and growers to create digital spray plans that comply with council regional air quality plans.
The tool provides information about agrichemicals and any hazards these pose to the environment. Documenting their use helps growers demonstrate their commitment to the Global Good Agricultural Practices certification scheme.
The latest version of the SprayPlan Manager platform is a complete rebuild of the original built by HortPlus with Plant & Food Research in 2008.
The new version allows better mapping and product search, as well as a risk assessment module. According to HortPlus, it is used annually by more than 1000 growers across more than 30 crop types.
Its development followed feedback from users, including agrichemical spraying contractor and educator Andy Mawley.
Andy teaches responsible spraying practices to growers and farmers through his business ProActive Education. He saw an opportunity to move growers and farmers from “ticking the box” when spraying on their land to thinking about how they could spray for health, safety, and the environment.
“There was nothing else like that I could find globally, and I figured if it could be done it would be an invaluable resource for all growers, along with industry bodies like Zespri and NZ Wine and every regional council across the country.”
The NZS8409:Management of Agrichemicals standard was released by Standards New Zealand in 2021, and many councils were now updating their regional air quality plans to require growers in their region to have a spray plan in place, Andy said.
He said modern agrichemical sprays were typically “softer” on the environment than those used in the past. However, climate change pressures and the emergence of new pests and diseases has required use of greater quantities of sprays in many areas.
“The increase in rural subdivisions is another factor that means that spray plans are becoming more important for New Zealand growers and their neighbours.
“SprayPlan Manager makes it easy to create and maintain a plan, so you can spray the most sensitive areas on your land at the most appropriate times while considering weather conditions and spray drift, getting the job done quicker, and using the right quantity of spray,” said Andy.