A chemical company has developed an adjuvant which it claims will help the crop spraying efforts of drones by stabilising their liquid contents so they will not drift from their targets when released from the small drone tanks.

An adjuvant is a substance that is added to a pesticide product or pesticide spray mixture to enhance the pesticide’s performance and/ or the physical properties of the spray mixture.

In this instance, the chemical additive has the effect of making the spray denser, so as to prevent it from getting lost in the wind while being dropped from the crop spraying drones.

At least that is what Clariant, the Swiss speciality chemicals company that has offices in South Africa.

“The use of drones in farming can make crop spraying more precise, economical and safe, and due to these benefits, it is taking off on farms worldwide,” the company said in announcing its solution, which was developed in Germany.

“However, it also brings new challenges: as drones have small tanks, they need to carry a more concentrated mix of actives and spray very fine drops to be effective.

“That’s why Clariant has launched DropForward, a focused approach to providing precision application with adjuvants and co-formulants. We offer our customers Synergen DRT, the drift control agent and biological activator specifically for drones. Developed in Clariant’s high-tech facilities in Germany, and under real-life conditions in Brazil, this high-performing adjuvant allows the application of standard pesticides under the low volume conditions of small drone tanks.

Agricultural drone technology companies like XAD and DJI seem to have been aware of this drift issue, as they have been developing drones with precision spray abilities as well as manoeuvrability when flying that allows them to apply chemical sprays at angles.

Apparently, chemical companies now want o play their part in ensuring that no chemical goes to waste.

“Synergen DRT helps to control drift and volatility of fine droplets during application and helps improving the coverage and penetration of the actives in the leaves, boosting biological performance as well as making drone spraying more sustainable and environmentally friendly,” said Fabio Caravieri, Clariant’s Head of Marketing, Industrial & Consumer Specialties.

Clariant says they tried their new solution using drones in several field tests in Brazil, on crops such as coffee, cotton, orange trees and wheat; spraying at low volume in experimental plots where increased coverage and deposition was observed with the addition of Synergen DRT in the application tank, resulting in higher product efficiency.

“The new adjuvant technology has shown that with small doses of the adjuvant, a robust performance is obtained in the control of drift and performance, even when used with mixtures of products, and standing out in the desiccation of weeds, ensuring higher efficacy of herbicides.”

Said Christian Vang, Global Head of Industrial & Consumer Specialties at Clariant; “Precision farming, with increasingly data driven decision making, is the future and drones will play a big part in this.

It is already used in fertilizer application due to significantly higher savings potential and the next big wave is expected to be with pesticides. Synergen DRT is cutting-edge adjuvant chemistry that is accelerating innovation and helping to position our customers at the forefront of a sustainable world.”