Pesky crop thieves could soon find themselves behind bars thanks to eyes in the skies.
The age-old problem of praedial larceny is set to be remedied by the 21st century solution of drones.
Yesterday, at the Ministry of Agriculture offices in Graeme Hall, event company Viral Media Inc and members of the ministry launched the awareness campaign for using drone technology to combat praedial larceny.
Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) Acting Assistant Superintendent with responsibility for research and development, David Wiltshire, who was at the press conference lauded the potential use of the technology.
“I think the whole concept on the use of technology to aid in the fight against praedial larceny is one that the force readily supports,” Wiltshire said afterwards.
“It not only allows us to add some additional value to what we are doing, but it gives us some extra mileage in being able to cover the areas that need to be policed,” he added.
The acting assistant superintendent said they needed to take into consideration that there were some RBPF manpower deficits which meant they could not respond to all praedial larceny calls.
Additionally, he allayed the fears of several of the farmers as he explained there were provisions in the law for footage captured by the drones to be used in court.
But while welcoming the use of drones to fight back against the thieves, Wiltshire said the use of the unmanned aircraft systems needed to be used in a controlled manner.
He explained it was exactly for that reason that a restriction was placed on the importation of drones last year.
Drones were initially banned by Government for 12 months back in April 2016 to allow the authorities to complete the necessary framework to govern their usage.
In September this year, Government extended the ban on the devices to the end of March 2018 as they explained the required legal framework was not completed.
Wiltshire said he was unsure as to what stage the regulations were at and this was the same sentiments expressed by chief executive officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS), James Paul.
However, Paul welcomed the possibility of using drones to combat praedial larceny as well as to help farmers in other ways.
“One of the things even at the BAS we had spoken to before is the use of drone technology to actually monitor crop health in fields because what you can actually do is monitor the progress of the crop using drone technology,” Paul explained.
The BAS president also noted the fulfilment of the regulations was important because while the drones could be used for good, they could also be used for bad by thieves.
Also calling for the regulations to be passed was Viral Media Inc technical director David Lewis.
“I think the ban could easily be lifted if the regulations were properly enforced. We’ve been waiting a little while; because of the few, everyone had to suffer,” Lewis told the famers during the press conference
“There are international regulations that are already in place for a lot of countries. We could adopt a lot and have a working framework,” he added. (AD)
