Herbicides Calculator

Reduce pesticide and herbicide losses with IITA's herbicide calculator

The "IITA Herbicides Calculator" is a solution designed to address the prevalent issue of pesticide misuse resulting from inadequate calibration of spray tanks. It permits farmers to estimate the required quantity of herbicides for knapsack sprayers. This tool was developed using Java language, the Ionic framework, and Android Studio, ensuring its robustness and usability. Tested for effectiveness and reliability by researchers, this technology assists in calibrating the application of herbicides and other pesticides specifically for knapsack sprayers. It's important to note that the tool does not involve specific compositions or sequences of products or technologies.

This technology is TAAT1 validated.

7•7

Scaling readiness: idea maturity 7/9; level of use 7/9

Adults 18 and over: Positive high

The poor: Positive medium

Under 18: Positive low

Women: Positive medium

Climate adaptability: Highly adaptable

Farmer climate change readiness: Significant improvement

Biodiversity: No impact on biodiversity

Carbon footprint: Same amount of carbon released

Soil quality: Does not affect soil health and fertility

Water use: Same amount of water used

Problem

The widespread misuse of pesticides (including herbicides) due to poor calibration of spray tanks.
Loss of inputs (pesticides or herbicides) during applications.

Residue of chemical products in crops due to overdosing of pesticides or herbicides.

Solution

Accurate Quantity Estimation: The technology ensures the precise application of pesticides, mitigating issues related to over or under-dosing.
Promoting Effectiveness: "IITA Herbicides Calculator" promotes the effectiveness of herbicides, facilitating their optimal application.

Key points to design your program

The Herbicide Calculator is a digital decision-support tool that helps farmers and spray service providers accurately calibrate knapsack sprayers and determine the correct herbicide dosage before application. The technology addresses widespread herbicide misuse caused by poor spray calibration, resulting in excessive or insufficient herbicide application, higher production costs, reduced weed control effectiveness, environmental contamination, and chemical residues in crops. It is well suited for climate-smart agriculture, sustainable intensification, digital extension, and crop productivity programmes, contributing to SDGs 3 (Good Health and Well-being), 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure). It also creates employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for farmers, women, youth, and spray service providers through improved digital advisory services and safer agrochemical application. To successfully integrate this technology, consider the following key actions:

Identify priority crop value chains, including maize, rice, cassava, cowpea, and yam, where poor spray calibration and inaccurate herbicide application reduce productivity and increase production costs.
Establish partnerships with IITA, national extension services, research institutions, agro-input suppliers, farmer organizations, and digital agriculture initiatives to support technology deployment, technical supervision, and farmer outreach.
Facilitate access to the Herbicide Calculator through extension services, digital advisory platforms, and compatible mobile devices while providing the technical support required for field implementation.
Train extension agents, spray service providers, agro-dealers, and farmers on sprayer calibration, herbicide dosage calculation, safe agrochemical handling, and responsible herbicide application.
Promote the use of certified spray service providers and strengthen advisory services to improve application accuracy and expand access to precision spraying, particularly for smallholder farmers.
Promote awareness of safe and responsible herbicide use through extension campaigns and advisory services that reduce input losses, environmental contamination, and health risks.
Promote the participation of women and youth through technical training, digital advisory services, and entrepreneurship opportunities in spray service provision.
Monitor programme performance through indicators such as technology adoption, calibration accuracy, herbicide-use efficiency, production cost savings, reductions in herbicide misuse and chemical residues, and the participation of women and youth.

IP

Open source / open access

Scaling Readiness describes how complete a technology\’s development is and its ability to be scaled. It produces a score that measures a technology\’s readiness along two axes: the level of maturity of the idea itself, and the level to which the technology has been used so far.

Each axis goes from 0 to 9 where 9 is the “ready-to-scale” status. For each technology profile in the e-catalogs we have documented the scaling readiness status from evidence given by the technology providers. The e-catalogs only showcase technologies for which the scaling readiness score is at least 8 for maturity of the idea and 7 for the level of use.

The graph below represents visually the scaling readiness status for this technology, you can see the label of each level by hovering your mouse cursor on the number.

Scaling readiness score of this technology

Maturity of the idea 7 out of 9

Semi-controlled environment: prototype

Level of use 7 out of 9

Common use by projects NOT connected to technology provider

Maturity of the idea										Level of use
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9

Countries with a green colour: Tested & adopted
Countries with a bright green colour: Adopted
Countries with a yellow colour: Tested
Countries with a blue colour: Testing ongoing

Countries where the technology is being tested or has been tested and adopted
Country	Testing ongoing	Tested	Adopted
Nigeria	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted

This technology can be used in the colored agro-ecological zones. Any zones shown in white are not suitable for this technology.

Agro-ecological zones where this technology can be used
AEZ	Subtropic - warm	Subtropic - cool	Tropic - warm	Tropic - cool
Arid
Semiarid
Subhumid
Humid

Source: HarvestChoice/IFPRI 2009

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that are applicable to this technology.

Goal 3: good health and well-being

Goal 8: decent work and economic growth

Goal 9: industry, innovation and infrastructure

Enter Herbicide Dosage: Input the recommended dosage of the herbicide in liters per hectare as indicated on the herbicide label.
Measure Water Dispensed: Measure the volume of water dispensed on a 10m x 10m plot. (To calculate the water sprayed on a 10m x 10m plot, measure an area of 10m x 10m, equal to 100m². Fill water in your knapsack spray tank and spray the measured area following a straight path at a nozzle height equivalent to your knee level. Enter the volume of water dispensed from your knapsack spray tank onto the 10m x 10m plot.)
Enter Knapsack Tank Capacity: Input the capacity of your knapsack spray tank in liters.
Calculate Herbicide Dosage: Press the "Calculate Volume" button to obtain the precise dosage of the herbicide required to be added to your knapsack spray tank before filling it with water for spraying.