Thursday, April 30th at 4pm
2045 Bainer Hall
"International pesticide drift reduction technology schemes and their optimized application with US EPAs and Australias new approaches to drift management and modeling."
Andrew Hewitt
Senior Research Fellow
School of Agriculture and Food Sciences,
The University of Queensland, Australia
Summary:
In Europe and Canada, schemes have been in place to support and encourage the use of drift reduction technologies (DRTs) for many years. The US launched its DRT scheme in early 2015 and Australia will launch its scheme later this year. The presentation will examine the different approaches taken in each country and explore the optimization of the US and Australian schemes.
About the Speaker:
Professor Andrew Hewitt, PhD serves as Director of the University of Queensland Centre for Pesticide Application and Safety, Australia (80%) and Research Professor in optimized pest control for the University of Nebraska, USA (20%). He also serves as an Honorary/ Adjunct Research Professor for Lincoln University, New Zealand (NZ). His research is focused on optimized pest control using ground, airblast and aerial application systems, supported by modeling the fate of agrochemicals within and beyond orchard, vineyard and broadacre cropping systems. He developed novel application systems and modeling for spraying banana crops in Central America, Australia and The Philippines. He leads a 6-year research program in vineyard spray application optimization in Australia and developed and led for 5 years a research program in optimized pesticide application in apple, grape and kiwifruit spraying in NZ. He serves as Science Fellow on pesticide regulatory issues for the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority and helped develop the new/ emerging spray drift reduction technology verification scheme for the US Environmental Protection Agency. He supervises PhD several students in Australia, the US and NZ conducting research into safer pest control in tree and broadacre crops. He has run recent research projects for Horticulture Innovation Australia Ltd. And leads ongoing multi-year projects for the Grains Research and Development Corporation, Plant Health Australia and Australian Grape and Wine Authority. His research uses a combination of field and laboratory (e.g. wind tunnel) studies. Prior to joining the University of Queensland in 2004, he served for a decade as Project Manager to the $50M US Spray Drift Task Force and other industry task forces collecting data on pest control and optimized application in the US, Canada, Australia and UK. His ongoing career focus involves working with all stakeholders from industry, government and academia to find solutions to pest control needs in diverse crops and situations.
Coffee and cookies will be served.
