Development and Evaluation of a Prototype Self-Propelled Crop Sprayer for Agricultural Sustainability in Small Farms

In most Asian countries, farmers have smallholdings ranging from one to two hectares. The tractor-mounted boom sprayers cannot practically be used in small size farms with divided plots and complex terrain. To cope these issues, a prototype self-propelled crop sprayer was developed, including 20-hp engine, 300 L liquid tank, hydraulically-controlled spray eight hollow cone nozzles. symmetry of the nozzle evaluated under four pressures (2.5, 3, 3.5, 4 bar) laboratory. operating parameters sprayer, such as forward speed (4, 6, 8 km h−1), height (40, 55, 70 cm), pressure (3, 5, 7 were optimized by measuring three characteristics droplet density, coverage percentage, Volume Median Diameter (VMD) cotton field. results revealed that symmetrical at 2.5 3 bar R2 value higher than 0.96. field test result showed all treatments, treatments T14 (6 h−1, 55 cm, 5 T22 (8 suitable for spraying medium-to-low concentration solution (post-emergence herbicides fungicides) high (insecticides pre-emergence herbicides), respectively. 64.7 droplets cm−2, 26.7%, 230 µm, 39 14.9%, 219.8 µm efficiency 61%. cost per unit area 55–64% less compared manual labor cost. conclusion, is an efficient environment-friendly technology farms. Operating optimal also saves operational costs time.