Agritech; the use of laser fence to protect crops from rats and other pests.

The role of agritech to produce tools and techniques to ensure farming is easy,reduce waste and prevent spread of diseases cannot be overemphasized.This has birthed a trend of partnerships between agritech companies and other agric-inclined businesses to provide solutions that will ensure food security. Agritech has churned out some innovations (read earlier posts),but the latest innovation is the use of laser fence to scare pests away from crops to prevent damage.This laser fence is to protect crops from be eaten by rats,rodents,birds and other pests. The European Commission is funding a trial to see if a laser can scare rats and other rodents from crops in order to eliminate harmful poisons.Researchers at Liverpool John Moores University (Liverpool, England) hope a "fence" of laser light will scare rats and other pests, proving an alternative to poison. The trials will take place in Scotland, the Netherlands, and Spain starting in late 2016. The National Farmers' Union (NFU) said innovation was important to support the farming industry following Brexit. "The laser has already been produced," Alex Mason, project coordinator of the Life Laser Fence project, told the BBC. The EC contributed $1.85 million dollars to support the research. "It's a commercial product used in a number of situations--but we are looking at using it in agricultural situations, on a wider range of species. It already works very well on birds. We hope it will work on rats, badgers, foxes and rabbits too." The Agrilaser Autonomic is sold as a device that repels birds, which "perceive the approaching laser beam as a physical danger" and fly away, according to the manufacturer. The researchers hope it will work just as well on other unwanted animals that can destroy crops, eat food meant for farm animals, and spread disease. Controlling pests with poisons can lead to unintended victims such as birds being killed too, so the trial hopes to reduce crop damage in the trial areas by 50%, while reducing bird exposure to pesticide by 80%. more