Rovic is a South African-based leader in agricultural mechanization, specializing in the engineering, manufacturing, and distribution of high-quality farming equipment. With a focus on innovation and technical efficiency, the company provides advanced solutions—from groundbreaking tillage tools to sophisticated crop protection systems—to help farmers maximize productivity while reducing operational costs.
Across the Western Cape and beyond, orchard and vineyard farmers know that the line between a profitable harvest and a devastating loss often comes down to a single factor: the efficiency of their spray program. While many focus on the rising costs of chemicals, the true hidden cost lies in deposition efficiency. This refers to the percentage of applied pesticide that successfully reaches the plant canopy and is retained there. In an era of tight margins, understanding the mechanics of how you spray is just as important as what you spray.
The Financial Reality of the “Perfect Dose”
Ineffective spraying is more than just a waste of money; it is an environmental and safety hazard. Poor deposition leads to food contamination due to excessive pesticide residue, water and air contamination from off-target drift, and soil degradation from excessive run-off. These factors cause adverse effects on biodiversity and human health, but they also represent a massive financial leak for the farm.
To understand the immense financial stakes involved in modern crop protection, one must look at the actual chemical costs per hectare for the 2024/25 season. Leading the high-input categories is Citrus at R80,000 per hectare, followed closely by Table Grapes at R40,000 and Apples at R38,000. Even stone fruits and nuts require significant investment, with Plums and Nectarines reaching up to R25,000 per hectare, while Pecan Nut programs can cost up to R20,000.
When a sprayer is poorly calibrated or maintained, a farmer can easily lose 40% of these active ingredients. On a 40-hectare citrus farm, that represents a staggering R1,280,000 loss per year.
Conventional vs. Pneumatic: The Battle of the Droplet
Two primary types of sprayers dominate the South African industry, and the choice between them dictates your droplet spectrum.
Conventional (High Volume) Systems: These traditional sprayers use a diaphragm or piston pump to obtain high water pressure to distribute chemicals through small diameter outlets. A fan helps “hold up” and assist the distribution over the vegetation. Under this system, roughly 85% of droplets have a diameter of 300 to 500 microns. Because this size cannot be reduced even by increasing pressure, the resulting distribution is often rough, uneven, and less efficacious.
Pneumatic (Low Volume) Systems: Based on the “Venturi tube” principle, these sprayers use a centrifugal fan to generate intense airflow that shears water into extremely fine particles—a “water fog”—without requiring high-pressure nozzles. Here, 90% of droplets are typically between 100 to 150 microns.
The physics of this is critical: from the volume of a single 300-micron droplet, you can obtain 27 droplets of 100 microns. When you account for the “Fleming halo” effect—the diffusion and saturation of the peripheral layer—the covered area of these smaller droplets increases roughly 10 times.
The Four Pillars of Air Velocity
Rovic’s engineering focuses on the “rush intensity” of the air stream, which has four direct impacts on your crop:
Projection: Suspending and carrying the atomized liquid to the peripheral of the target area.
Penetration: Moving leaves and fruit to allow the spray-laden air flow to enter the canopy.
Diffusion: Progressing throughout the target volume to ensure every interior target area is reached.
Deposition: Moving the foliage within the air stream to increase “catch efficiency” and improve deposition in shaded areas.
The ultimate goal is for air momentum to dissipate into the canopy, “lightly puffing” through to the other side. If the air velocity does not dissipate to virtually 0 m/s on the far side, you are blowing your profits into the atmosphere.
Rovic’s Syncrospray Next Gen: Engineering the Solution
Rovic has evolved its mistblower range into the Syncrospray Next Gen family, featuring 9 models split between 5 families to handle everything from delicate berries and vineyards to 15-meter-high pecan orchards. 
The flagship 112-265 model is a powerhouse of efficiency:
Massive Airflow: Equipped with a 112cm diameter fan, it can deliver a staggering 75,700 m³/h of airflow.
Superflow Turret: Utilizing Rovic’s patented technology, the turret has been expanded to a 3.3m Superflow, perfectly suited for avocados, macadamias, and pecan nut trees.
High-Capacity Piston Pump: Features a piston pump capable of 265 ℓ/min to ensure liquid and powder mixes reach heights of over 15 meters.
The 40% Risk: The Overlooked Nozzle
Even the best sprayer will fail if the nozzles are neglected. Nozzles are exposed to extreme pressures of up to 20 bar. Rovic’s comparative wear tests show that high-performance plastic nozzles can experience a 40% variation in flow rate due to wear after just 100 hours of operation.
For a 40-hectare citrus farm, where chemical costs can reach R80,000 per hectare, a 40% loss due to worn nozzles equates to a staggering R1,280,000 loss per year. Regularly replacing a set of 24 nozzles (averaging R2,400 total) is a small price to pay to avoid such massive losses.
Optimizing Your Application
To achieve maximum deposition, Rovic’s engineers recommend several key strategies:
Watch Your Speed: Increasing spray speed from 3.5 km/h to 5 km/h can reduce the recovery of active ingredients in the densest areas by 40%.
Manage Air Momentum: The air momentum must be dissipated into the tree canopy, reaching the other side with just a “light puff”. Ideally, air velocity should dissipate to virtually 0 m/s on the far side of the tree to ensure the spray stays on target.
Night Testing: Do not neglect the power of spraying at night with UV dye to visually determine the projection, penetration, diffusion, and deposition of the active ingredient.
Mechanization and chemicals are significant investments, but ignorance of their technical application is the greatest expense of all. The cost of maintaining a sprayer is roughly R1,273 per hectare per year. When compared to the R80,000 spent per hectare on citrus chemicals, it is clear that precision and maintenance are the best investments a farmer can make. By focusing on deposition efficiency, farmers can protect their crops, their soil, and their bottom line.
For more information visit www.rovic.com