How drone are helping secure land use and land cover in developing countries

Drones will soon be as much a part of our lives as personal computers and cell phones. We could spend hours and days listing all the sectors where the use of drone services is relevant, as well as the solutions that have been developed. However, in this article, we're going to look at one of the most important uses of drone in the agricultural sector of developing countries.

Most developing countries are facing a lack of agricultural development, not because they do not have valuable land, but because finding land with no risk of conflict due to lack of proof of ownership is a huge and complex problem preventing farmers from accessing financing for any agricultural project. We all know and agree that to implement an agricultural policy aimed at increasing national production in any country land tenure security is the number one priority.

When a plot of land is cultivated by a third-generation heir, while no formal, legal division has ever taken place, the occupant, although entitled to the land, has no document showing the boundaries, the area and, above all, his right of ownership.

As a result, no financial institution will commit to any financing due to those lacks of information and not having guarantee that another heir will not one day claim ownership. It follows that all solutions developed for the agricultural sector, no matter how sophisticated they can be, will be useless if this issue is not taken into account, addressed and resolved.

With this in mind, HDS worked with a group of 96 farmers in a rural area of northern Haiti to find the most cost-effective solution to secure the ownership of their plots. The use of drone technology was the best, less expensive and fastest option. The first step was to map an area comprising all the lands owned by the heirs. The second stage involved using a large-format printout of the land orthomosaic to identify and extract all the parcels occupied by each farmer, following the current boundaries showed on the map. The third step was to set up a collective agreement in which all heirs gave the current occupier of the plot the right of use by signing an agreement not to contest the land occupation.
Once the agreement signed, each heir has received a no-contest occupancy document to be sealed by the municipality. This document includes an orthoimage of the plot, the heir's name, his state identification number, the parcel size and the geographical coordinates. This document is not an official land title, but provides enough information to guarantee that the land is secure to enable the occupant farmers to access finance to improve their production assets and open up access to the market.

For more information please contact us at info@haitidroneservices.com or visit www.haitidroneservices.com