CityNews – Chiang Mai’s Far Eastern University has signed a deal with the Narcotic Crops Survey and Monitoring Institute to develop unmanned aerial vehicles for monitoring remote opium fields.
University rector Kittiphat Suwannachin and institute director Pipop Chamnivikaipong signed the agreement at the university’s campus in Chiang Mai yesterday.
Opium growers nowadays are growing the crop alongside other plants to avoid detection, Pipop said.
The unmanned aerial vehicles, which cost around 40,000 to 50,000 baht to produce, are capable of taking images at a height of up to 700 metres within a 5-kilometer radius, according to the National News Bureau of Thailand.