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The national government refines compliance with the requirements of the Constitutional Court that would guarantee the return of aerial spraying against illicit crops.
The Anti-Narcotics Police is in charge of the environmental management plan against the eradication of illegal crops and aerial spraying with the herbicide glyphosate, suspended since October 2015.
Precisely within that Plan, certain characteristics were established for the choice of the aircraft to be used, anticipating the return of the spraying.
At the Caucasia anti-narcotics base, in Antioquia, they introduced the Minister of Defense, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, the chosen aircraft: an Air Tractor – AT802 – adapted to comply with the spraying program.
(Read also: Report Reveals Possible Harm of Glyphosate to Reproductive Health)
The minister noted: “We continue to advance in the process to reactivate it (aerial spraying). From the Defense Sector we have our capabilities ready so that aerial spraying is a precision tool, completely in accordance with environmental regulations and that allows us to significantly reduce the area with illicit crops in Colombia, since this translates into a decrease in
factors that provoke violence and destruction in the territories “.
And he added: “The enemy of Colombia is drug trafficking, not a herbicide. Spraying, together with eradication and substitution, is essential because drug trafficking kills, commits massacres, it ends the lives of social leaders, deforests, induces young people to consume and crime, generates corruption and violates human rights “.
The enemy of Colombia is drug trafficking, not a herbicide. Spraying, together with eradication and replacement, is essential because drug trafficking kills, commits massacres …
An official in charge of structuring the return plan for aerial spraying told EL TIEMPO that the Air Tractor is an aircraft for agricultural use.
“This is an aircraft used in legal agriculture in Chile, Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Central America and North America, with excellent results in commercial agriculture. Strict and restrictive protocols are applied in the application of pesticides ”, assured the expert.
This is an aircraft used in legal agriculture in Chile, Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Central America and North America.
Cesar Melgarejo. TIME
He noted that according to geographical circumstances, the Air Tractor it would open its spray nozzles 12 meters into the coca crop and close them 20 meters before leaving, by emphasizing that this is an evaluation parameter in which other external factors such as wind and weather conditions influence.
The important thing, he stressed, is that this way any damage to the environment would be avoided and accuracy would be guaranteed in the crops to be affected.
(You may be interested in: Coca cultivation continues to advance in five national parks)
“This aircraft has another peculiarity and that is that it can fly at low altitude, it has a state-of-the-art detection and location system which will allow maximum precision in the application of the product, ”said the Antinarcotics officer.
Regarding the nozzles, he highlighted that the chosen ones are the 11TT0015, which are practical and on which tests have been made in the “wind tunnel”, in Nebraska, USA, managing to apply a large drop of the herbicide of more than 330 microns and that it falls on the leaf, eliminating the unwanted crop.
He explained that Air Tractors have a flight capacity of between 4 and 5 hours, and that according to the amount of mixture they transport, they can sprinkle, a single team or mission, 44 hectares. It could do up to three missions a day, managing to affect 132 hectares in total each day.
(Further: UN offers to audit process to restart aerial spraying)
He added that with land eradication, only 1.9 hectares are exterminated per day, with the risk run by those who participate in that process. This year 15 members of the Public Force have died in forced eradication activities.
The aircraft, whose number is not disclosed for now, are part of the National Police flotilla but will be piloted by civilians who are experts in agricultural spraying.
All these aircraft will be armored and will be piloted by a single person.
Similarly, the Antinarcotics expert pointed out that return to aerial spraying will maintain the use of glyphosate, on which he assured that it is the most widely used herbicide in licit crops, that it is a good product and that, taking all measures, it is very useful in the fight against drugs.
(In context: Dissidents, Eln and ‘Gulf Clan’, those who attack eradicators)
Similarly, the Defense Minister traveled by helicopter to the San Francisco village, in Nechí, Antioquia, where he was shown the scope of the manual eradication programs.
This year the Integrated Antinarcotics Monitoring System (Sima) has been positioned, which in real time it allows to identify a coca crop, its extension and exact geographical position.
Sima will be articulated with the aerial spraying, demarcating the areas of action and carrying out a count of affectation, for this purpose, 4 aircraft were conditioned Cessna Caravan C-208 that are equipped with two video cameras flir star safre High quality 380, which allows to identify kill by kill, to which is added the multi-spectral camera with a resolution of 5 centimeters at 3,200 feet high.
Air Tractors have a flight capacity of between 4 and 5 hours, and according to the amount of mixture they transport, they can spray, a single team or mission, 44 hectares.
Cesar Melgarejo. TIME
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