A World Bank conference is underway this week in Washington, D.C., discussing land-rights issues worldwide. Research from the University of Arizona is being presented on how drones can be used to reduce poverty.
Assistant Professor Mamadou Baro and a team work in Niger, Senegal and other countries to research land rights for farmers. He said it’s difficult for farmers to get title to their own land and drones can be used to help effectively show boundaries.
“So we’re trying to find out ways to make poor people have access to the paper they need to secure their land,” Baro said.
Baro said in the past, the land belonged to farmers and local farming communities, but they did not have any official title to it. He said land disputes now tend to be either from "land grabs," where outsiders come into parts of Africa trying to grab land area from local communities or issues over governments selling local land rights.
