Agriculture Ministry utilising smart traps for pest surveillance

By Prince Moore    

 

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining says it has employed the use of smart traps to enhance Jamaica's pest surveillance and border protection capabilities.

 

The initiative is being done through its Plant Quarantine Produce Inspection Branch in partnership with the Jamaica Social Investment Fund.

 

Acting Chief Plant Quarantine Produce Inspector, Damian Rowe, says the traps, which use a mobile app to monitor pests, have the capacity to automatically detect and identify target pests remotely and in real time through its built-in camera, sensors and other cutting-edge technology.

 

"We are able to be more efficient; efficient in the case that we use to go out in the field every two weeks, and it's not a lot of us. So with this capacity, we now go out in the field every eight weeks and that's just to service the trap... And we're installing about 125 traps. No other Caribbean country has that capacity as yet, so that's why we're saying it's a game-changer for the region because we're moving ahead," said Mr. Rowe. 

 

Entomologist Identifier Karen Barrett Christie said the Agriculture Ministry is utilising the traps to monitor the Mediterranean Fruit Fly and Tomato Leaf Miner which are both known to cause significant damage to crops.

 

Mrs. Barrett Christie said the traps will help extend the reach of the monitoring capabilities of the research team, which comprises the Ministry's Plant Quarantine Produce Inspection branch and Research and Development division, and the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA). 

 

"We can put these traps in some of the remote places where we couldn't go so that will assist us in being more efficient and more effective. We will also benefit in terms of the fact that these traps are operated through sensors and cameras because the app is so diverse and all the trap information is placed on the app. We will also be able to go on to the app to see what is happening in each of the traps. The traps are placed not only at our ports of entry. They're also put in our production area to alert our farmers right away," she explained.