Jamaica First in Caribbean to Use Smart Trap Technology

Jamaica is the first Caribbean country to use Smart Traps in the surveillance and monitoring of insects that could impact local crops.

First installed in November last year, the acquisition of 125 Smart Traps was done through a partnership between the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) and the Plant Quarantine and Produce Inspection (PQPI) Branch of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining.

So far, 95 per cent of the traps, which were sourced from Slovenia, have been installed.

There are two types of traps; one targeting the Medfly and the other the Tomato Leafminer.

Identifier/Entomologist in the PQPI Unit in Kingston, Karen Barrett Christie, told JIS News that the smart traps are far more advanced than traditional paper traps.

“They have cameras and sensors attached and they can give us weather data. They give us more, so that as a Ministry, we can now be more targeted in the things that we can do with the information that we gain from these smart traps,” she said.

Mrs. Barrett Christie said before the traps were installed, the team from Trapview, the source company in Slovenia, partnered with the Unit to train Jamaicans remotely, on how to use them.

“Then they physically came to Jamaica to do further training on how to set up the traps and to understand our connectivity because the trap does use a chip, so they had to understand if they could get islandwide coverage in terms of our 4G or 5G network. They assisted us also with setting up the apps, so that we can view the traps remotely from our smartphones,” she said.

A team from Trapview in Slovenia visited Jamaica to execute training in how to set up and use the Tomato Leafminer and Medfly traps.

Though the Medfly and Tomato Leafminer are currently not in Jamaica, their impact can be devastating.

This is why the PQPI Branch, in partnership with JSIF, has moved to strengthen surveillance activities and safeguard the agricultural sector.

“One of the insects – in particular the Medfly – is a very devastating pest. It has about 300 hundred host plants and if or when we get this pest in Jamaica, it is going to be very devastating to our agriculture. The second pest we are monitoring for is the Tomato Leafminer. One of the things is that the Leafminer is already in the region, so it is present in Trinidad and Tobago, and in Haiti,” Mrs. Barrett Christie said.

Should either of these pests enter the island, improved monitoring through the presence of the traps will increase the likelihood of early detection and improved pest management.

“We would be able to inform our farmers, put our emergency response plans in place and then be able to act swiftly once the pests come into the country. That is one of the benefits of having these smart traps,” Mrs. Barrett Christie said.

“We have started with Medfly and Tomato Leafminer because those are high priorities for us. But we are hoping with other collaborations with other agencies, we will be able to do further surveillance activities and use other traps,” she added.

Tomato Leafminer trap in pepper field in Spring Plains, Clarendon.