Staff Reporter
Free State Department of Agriculture and Rural Development MEC William Bulwane believes the use of drones and digital trackers to monitor the movement of livestock could help improve security on the farms and allow emerging farmers to grow.
According to the MEC, most farmers along the SA border with Lesotho have struggled with stock theft and farm attacks for a long time and he anticipates a new initiative launched by his department on Friday to reduce the high crime rate and allow farmers to focus more on their operations.
“We felt it important to help farmers improve security on their farms using drones and trackers for their livestock,” said Bulwane during the launch of the Risk Management Solution Programme near Wepener.
The programme is aimed at assisting farmers to minimise the loss of livestock, crops and different equipment through the use of technology.
Bulwane said farmers around Wepener, Ladybrand, Thaba Nchu, Botshabelo as well as areas along the Caledon River, Fouriesmith up to Bethlehem have been complaining a lot about stock theft.
The Intelligent Animal Tracking System is expected to help curb the growing problem of stock theft.
“We have been looking at ways to address this . . . at times we did spontaneous patrols using a police helicopter but it didn’t help much,” said Bulwane.
“We wanted something that could give a permanent solution to these problems.
“We then decided to use the drones so that the farmers are able to check on their cattle on their own.
“The system is linked to their cellphones and they keep track of their livestock from wherever they are.”
The drones will not be given to individual farmers but will be allocated to groups and operated by a qualified drone pilot.
The first beneficiaries of the initiative are emerging and large-scale farmers in the Mangaung Metro.
These include farmers in the commonages around Thaba Nchu and Botshabelo as well as commercial farmers from Wepener and Bainsvlei.
About R4.5 million has been allocated for this programme to support 156 farmers.
They will be provided with about 1 706 solar-powered livestock tracking devices.
At least 32 vehicles will also be fitted with the anti-hijack tracking devices.
The programme is set to be rolled out to other parts of the province soon.