The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, through its Plant Quarantine Produce Inspection (PQPI) Branch in partnership with the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), has employed the use of smart traps to enhance Jamaica’s pest surveillance and border protection capabilities, becoming the first country in the Caribbean region to do so.
According to PQPI’s Acting Chief Plant Quarantine Produce Inspector, Damian Rowe, 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 thanks to its built-in camera, sensors and other cutting-edge technologies.
“We are able to stay in our office, anywhere in Jamaica, we could be in Kingston and are looking at a trap in Montego Bay and we are able to tell what is inside that trap. So, if we see the target pest or the target pest is detected by the trap, a signal will be sent to our office to say that you have found something, and you need to check this out and it can give you a picture of what [the pest] looks like,” he explained.
Rowe said about 125 of these traps will be deployed and has indicated that Jamaica is the only country in the Caribbean region to have this kind of technology in place.
“We first stepped out the block and installed these types of traps in Jamaica and we are hoping that our Caribbean neighbours can see what we are doing and move towards this technology which will promote greater efficiency,” he outlined.
Meanwhile, Entomologist Identifier at PQPI, Karen Barrett Christie, said the Ministry is currently utilizing the traps to monitor the Mediterranean Fruit Fly (Ceratitis capitata) and the Tomato Leaf Miner (Phthorimaea absoluta), which are both known to cause significant damage to crop and loss of export markets worldwide.
She outlined that the traps have made the monitoring process of pests more efficient and less labour intensive.
“We were currently using paper traps, these paper traps we must service every two weeks, and we would change the lures every 8-10 weeks. With the smart traps, one of the benefits is that we no longer will have to go out into the field every two weeks, but we would only change the traps when the lure has diminished which is between 8 to 10 weeks,” Barrett Christie highlighted.
She said the traps will help to extend the reach of the monitoring capabilities of the research team, which consists of the Ministry’s Plant Quarantine Produce Inspection branch and Research and Development division, and the Rural Agricultural Development Authority.
“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 effective,” Barrett Christie pointed out.
The Entomologist Identifier also shared that a key benefit of the trap is ability to monitor several traps at time including those that are not in Jamaica.
“Because the app is so diverse and all the trap information is placed on the app, we will also be able to go onto the app and see what is happening in each of the traps, which are placed all over the island,” Barrett Christie explained.
She outlined that the traps are placed at strategic points such as ports of entry and production areas. She said that this facilitates early detection and response.
“So, in the event that anything happens, for example the Tomato Leaf Miner is detected in any of the traps, we are able to alert our farmers right away so that is a benefit for our farmers,” Barrett Christie pointed out.
The smart traps are part of a larger JSIF project valuing JMD 90,236,928 (about USD 593,664) that aims to enhance plant protection and trade facilitation.
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