Pesticide drift is the airborne movement of pesticides from an area of application to any unintended site. Drift can happen during pesticide application, when droplets or dust travel away from the target site. To limit pesticide drift, drift reduction nozzles can be used. Many of these nozzles control the flow rate. The exit orifice controls the pattern formation. The result is larger spray droplets which are less susceptible to drift. Also, some of these nozzles can be used over a wider pressure range, which produces large droplets at low pressure and small droplets at high pressures. (Mueller et al, 1997, Nuyttents et al, 2007, Kalsing et al, 2018)
Pesticide application techniques employs drift reduction and low loss equipment may be used as indicator for a reduced pesticide drift risk. This information may be used in relation to the total number of pesticide sprayers in a certain area.