Spray Plan Manager a decisionsupport tool for regulatory compliance and improving agrichemical use practices

Abstract

Spray Plan Manager (SPM) is a decision support tool that helps users manage and document agrichemical use plans for compliance and for environmental and user risk reduction Refined and relaunched in 2013 at wwwsprayplanconz SPM has a base user group of 1700 registered plans across 76 crop types SPM takes agrichemical users through a stepwise property spray plan development SPM uses online GIS mapping to assist in agrichemical risk management around identified sensitive areas SPM uses agrichemical HSNO hazard classifications to describe personal protective equipment requirements for agrichemical mixing and application operations For ongoing management of boundary and sensitive areas spray drift risks can be estimated using forecast wind speed wind direction humidity and temperature SPM ranks drift conditions on a scale from 1 (suitable) to 4 (unsuitable) and displays the usersupplied forecast directional risks on the property map This has introduced a near realtime management component into annual spray plan operations Annually produced property spray plans are an agrichemical use requirement under most regional plans The new SPM was designed to assist users in this compliance task while also improving user education and outcomes around the safe effective and responsible use of agrichemicals