The satellite technology used by the EU to monitor farmers and their crops could be used to trace illegal dumping in the countryside, the expert who interprets images for the Department of Agriculture and Food said yesterday.
Mr Tom McHugh of Icon, a Ranelagh-based company, said the pictures taken by satellite had definition down to one metre. Where earth was disturbed it should be technically possible to locate illegal dumps.
"However, that is a matter for the Department of the Environment and I am unsure if the images which are available to monitor the Common Agricultural Policy would be available to them," he said.
Mr McHugh, whose company examines images from the GIS technology system, said various crops leave different "fingerprints" by which they could be identified and this was used to verify claims made by farmers.
Ms Gráinne Dalton, of the Department of Agriculture and Food, said the satellite images and digital photography were vital in helping to check the applications from farmers and would continue to be used despite the breaking of the link next year between production and farm support payments.
"The images will be there to ensure that farmers were keeping their land in good agricultural order which they must do to qualify for their single payment and the Commission is also concerned about the loss of pastureland and this will be monitored," she said.
Yesterday saw the opening in Budapest of the first ever conference on Control with Remote Sensing of Area Based Subsidies. The event marks the 10th anniversary of the founding of the system known as MARS (monitoring agriculture with remote sensing).
Dr Jacques Delince, of the MARS project, said five satellites were being used to monitor agricultural activity - SPOT, IRS, Landstat, Ikonos and EROS - and this year 22 member-states were using the systems for their agricultural controls. "These are in place to prevent agricultural fraud or irregularities and while it is difficult to quantify how much fraud is happening, we do know that the system acts as a deterrent for those who might attempt it," he said.
He said technology to identify animals was available but it was not practical to use it.
The MARS system, he added, was working towards allowing farmers to determine their agricultural farm boundaries more precisely so they could file more and accurate subsidy applications.