Precision Spray Application Technologies in Fruit Crops for Efficient and Sustainable Production
A Special Issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395) belonging to the section "Precision and Digital Agriculture".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 October 2026 | Viewed by 373
Editors
Interests: modeling and optimization in agricultural engineering; electrical parameters of biological materials; bioinformatics; artificial intelligence; computational intelligence; pattern classification; clustering; artificial neural networks; food science; evolutionary algorithms; neural modeling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: technique of plant protection; pesticide application technology; spraying liquid drift; quality of the spraying procedure; spray quality indicators; unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV); drones; precision agriculture; fertilization process
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Precision spray application plays a crucial role in modern fruit crop production, where high-quality yields must be achieved while minimizing environmental impact and ensuring the safe use of plant protection products. Traditional spray application methods in orchards and vineyards often lead to excessive pesticide use, uneven canopy coverage, and significant spray drift, resulting in economic losses and increased risks to non-target organisms.
Recent advances in precision agriculture have enabled the development of innovative spray technologies tailored to the specific characteristics of fruit crops, such as complex canopy structures and variable plant density. Sensor-based systems, variable-rate application, and smart sprayers allow for more accurate targeting of the crop canopy, improved deposition efficiency, and reduced chemical inputs. These technologies contribute directly to sustainable production systems and support the principles of Integrated Pest Management.
This Special Issue aims to present original research and review papers addressing technological, environmental, and operational aspects of precision spray application in fruit crops. Contributions focusing on novel application systems, assessment methods, decision-support tools, and sustainability evaluation are particularly welcome.
This Special Issue focuses on recent advances in precision spray application in fruit crop production aimed at improving efficiency, reducing environmental impact, and enhancing sustainability. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Precision spraying technologies for orchards and vineyards;
- Sensor-based and variable-rate spray application systems;
- Spray drift reduction techniques and assessment methods;
- Optimization of spray parameters (nozzles, pressure, airflow, droplet size);
- Canopy characterization and decision-support tools;
- Digital agriculture, automation and smart sprayers;
- Environmental, economic and safety aspects of pesticide application;
- Precision spraying within Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies;
- Evaluation of application quality and deposition in fruit crops;
- Adaptation of spray technologies to climate change conditions.
Prof. Dr. Katarzyna Pentoś
Guest Editor
Dr. Beata Cieniawska
Guest Editor Assistant
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- precision spraying
- fruit crops
- spray drift
- variable-rate application
- smart sprayers
- canopy management
- sustainable agriculture
- IPM
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