Author(s): Jemal Nur, Heykel Jemal and Bayissa Tarecha

Abstract: The spraying of pesticides is an important task to protect crops from insects for obtaining high yields. The hand-operated sprayer is one of, labour intensive and time-consuming method, which decreases productivity due to low capacity per unit of time. Hence, to overcome this work drudgery design solar-powered faring foliar or pesticide sprayers that solve the best alternate solution and better operation for large fruit trees. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop and evaluate solar-powered agricultural sprayers for vegetable and fruit trees. The system was designed by considering different parameters; spraying capacity, basic raw material, environmental and crop condition, operating and coverage of area per unit time. The experiment was arranged in factorial Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with six treatments replicated 3 times. Treatments: 3 hose diameter and 3 length hose. The machine has capacity of 0.25 ha/hr. The actual area coverage and discharging rate of 1.32 lit/min, as well as the efficiency of the machine, was 79.4%. This value was coincided with the average fruit tree of the study area. Based on the tested result, the sprayers produce the best booming uniformity and droplet size at six diameters at nine meter (9 m) vertical height that is better technology for large fruit trees like mango and avocado as well as agro-forestry foliar and chemical application and should promote for farming communities boosting agricultural production and productivity.

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