People in central Japan are testing a drone to see if it is capable of preventing the theft of fruit from orchards.

The project comes amid a wave of fruit thefts ahead of their harvests.

A local agricultural cooperative in Toyota City, Aichi prefecture, teamed up with farmers and a robotics firm in nearby Nagoya City.

On Monday, more than 20 people gathered at a Japanese pear orchard in the outskirts of Toyota City with a drone, a computer, and other items.

As a licensed pilot looked on, the drone automatically took off from its base station and flew a pre-determined course over the orchard for several minutes before returning.

The camera drone system was originally intended to protect crops from wild animals and birds.

The system's developer says it will work to come up with ways to automatically alert security firms if an intruder is detected.

The agricultural cooperatives said that as of 2021, there were nine cases of fruit theft in Toyota alone, with fruit worth over 100,000 yen, or 670 dollars, being taken at one time.

Local farmer Kato Yoshihiro said he has also suffered thefts. He expressed the hope that the monitoring system will be put to good use, as farmers alone cannot patrol their orchards around the clock.