The FAO minimum requirements in this publication are based on existing international, European and national standards and other published references. The guidelines provide a practical aid to assist purchasing and other agencies to avoid buying or approving sprayers with quality and design limitations, which could compromise operator and environmental safety. Member countries should adopt them immediately, to begin to eliminate substandard and unsafe sprayers from national markets and ultimately from the international scene.

The FAO minimum requirements in this publication are based on existing international, European and national standards and other published references. The guidelines provide a practical aid to assist purchasing and other agencies to avoid buying or approving sprayers with quality and design limitations, which could compromise operator and environmental safety. Member countries should adopt them immediately, to begin to eliminate substandard and unsafe sprayers from national markets and ultimately from the international scene.

The FAO guidelines on minimum requirements for agricultural pesticide spray equipment are based on existing international, European and national standards, as well as other published references and expert knowledge. The guidelines provide a practical aid to avoid buying or approving sprayers with quality and design limitations which could compromise operator and environmental safety.

These guidelines have been prepared to offer practical help and guidance to all those involved in using pesticides for food and fibre production as well as in public health programmes. The guidelines in this document cover the application of pesticides using any ground-based field crop sprayers, including operator-carried and tree and bush crop sprayers.

This second edition of the compendium provides a brief description of all the technical guidance documents, manuals, toolkits, databases and other resources for pesticide management developed by FAO and WHO. These resources support the standards outlined in the International Code of Conduct on Pesticide Management by providing detailed information and guidance on how to manage pesticides at the different stages of their life cycle, i.e. from production to disposal of waste. The resources are principally intended for use by governments in low- and middle-income countries but they may also be useful to other stakeholders. The resources cover both agricultural and public health uses of pesticides. The documents listed in this compendium have been prepared, reviewed and adopted by FAO and WHO expert groups including, since 2007, the FAO/ WHO Joint Meeting on Pesticide Management (JMPM). The compendium will be updated regularly in the future. Older documents included in the compendium are still considered valid as the issues they address have not changed.