ARGENTINIAN FARMERS claim to have decreased crop losses by up to 90 per cent by using a laser to deter birds.
Manufactured by Bird Control Group, the Agri-Laser was recently tested in Argentina through projects sponsored by the Dutch government and was showed to decrease crop loss by between 70 and 90pc.
Watch the video below to see the Agri-laser in action.
Bird Control Group, commercial director, Imre Knol said South American crops, particularly sunflowers, blueberries, nuts, almonds, pecans and citrus crops, suffered greatly from bird damage.
“In recent months we have been conducting trials with our Agri-laser technology in various regions of Argentina,” he said.
“We wanted to test the effect of our laser technology on different birds and investigate how we can increase the profitability of the local farmers`"
Mr Knol said Bird Control Group is the global market leader in innovative laser bird repelling solutions and the trials were done in collaboration with INTA, an independent agricultural research centre in Argentina.
One of the trials targeted sunflowers, Mr Knol said, which are particularly susceptible to Monk parakeets.
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"We have done a trial in Buenos Aires. The Agrilaser Autonomic was set up on a field of 30 hectares there. An adjacent field of 30ha we intentionally left unprotected,” he said.
“We also clearly see here that the burrowing parrots in the protected areas don’t damage the crops. However, the monk parakeets still do cause damage but to a much lesser extent. All in all, we can conclude this was a successful test with a damage reduction of more than 85pc.”
Mr Knol said the technology had also been trialled in vineyards and blueberry farms.
“We have been able to conclude that Agri-laser Autonomic is very effective in chasing birds,” he said.