A Decision Support System (DSS) to Reduce the Spray Application Rate in Vineyards: Dosviña®, a Tool for Pesticide Saving

The EU Farm to Fork Strategy strives to reduce by 50% the overall use of agrochemicals by 2030. One way to comply with it is to adapt the spray application rate to the canopy characteristics. Recently, the Dosaviña® tool was developed to calculate the optimal volume rate in vertical shoot trellised training system vineyards, based on canopy characteristics. It was demonstrated as reliable tool to reduce the plant protection products (PPP) consumption, guaranteeing the biological efficacy. The aim of this work was to test a modification of the Dosaviña® tool to calculate the optimal spray volume also for Pergola, Tendone, and Goblet training systems. A series of tests were carried out along the growing season to calculate the PPP saving by comparing the conventional (farmer reference) and Dosaviña® spray volume rates, keeping the same PPP concentration in the mixture. Furthermore, the water sensitive paper (WSP) spray coverage from conventional and Dosaviña®-based spray application volumes were compared to detect significant difference. On average, Dosaviña® allowed to reduce the spray volume rate of 20.0, 15.5, 44.9, and 26.6% in vertical shoot trellised, Goblet, Pergola, and Tendone, respectively. Generally, the spray coverage did not statistically differ among conventional and Dosaviña® spray volume rates irrespective of growth stage, although the spray volume rate was highly reduced.