The Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday unveiled two new uncrewed aerial vehicles developed by a local firm to improve its aerial surveys and assist in quarantine measures against African swine fever.
The disease has spread to 23 provinces in China and pig carcasses have been found across Taiwan over the past weeks, but only one found in Kinmen County on Dec. 31 had tested positive for the disease as of yesterday.
The fixed-wing drones could be used to help the coast guard hunt for pig carcasses drifting at sea, in addition to surveying agricultural lands and crop production, COA Deputy Minister Lee Tui-chih (李退之) told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
The nation’s pork products are safe and supplies are stable, he said, adding that the council would continue to protect the local hog industry against the disease.
The drones represent a leap in the Forestry Bureau’s aerial surveys, which would continue to develop while requiring fewer personnel and less funding, Forestry Bureau Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) said.
The drones were named “Hawk Eagles” — the nation’s biggest raptor species — by bureau officials in the hope that they would capture images as swiftly and precisely as the birds, Lin said.
Established in 1954, the bureau’s Aerial Survey Office is tasked with taking aerial photographs for agricultural use, while judicial and other government agencies also refer to its images for investigation or land planning purposes, Lin said.
The office relies on images taken by satellites and crewed aircraft, while the drones can take pictures from lower altitudes, office Director Kuan Li-hao (管立豪) said, adding that it plans to purchase two more drones and another crewed aircraft.
The drones, which cost NT$14 million (US$454,368) each, have an operational ceiling of 4,000m and can stay airborne for up to four hours, said Lo Cheng-fang (羅正方), chairman of Geosat Aerospace and Technology Inc, which built the aircraft.
Nearly 90 percent of the drones’ components were locally produced, while their engines were made in Japan and their imaging devices were produced by Denmark’s Phase One, he said.
Geosat has entered the Malaysian and Indonesian markets and plans to enter other markets, Lo added.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching