Farmer’s Weekly – 09 August 2019

9 August 2019 farmer’sweekly 21

TheWesternCapeDepartmentof

Agriculture recently held its first

drone awareness day at the Elsenburg

Agricultural Training Institute near

Stellenbosch. The programme kicked

off with various presentations by

Robert Britz, the sales and marketing

manager of Drone-X, followed

by practical demonstrations.

According to Dr Dirk Troskie,

the director of business planning

and strategy at the department,

the purpose of the day was to

equip students with skills and

knowledge about global technology

trends in the agriculture sector.

“Everybody is talking about the

Fourth Industrial Revolution, but in

the end, it’s all about the confluence

of rapid technological developments,

combinedwithsocio-economic

trends, which will lead to significant

disruption of the economy and

work as we know it. We believe the

agriculture sector will be one of the

economic sectors that will face the

biggest disruption. If we don’t develop

an appropriate response strategy,

it will lead to job losses, and local

farms would lose their international

competitiveness,” Troskie said.

He added that as about 66% of

the Western Cape’s agricultural

production, in value terms, was

exported, a loss of international

competitiveness would lead

to economic and employment

devastation in rural areas.

For this reason, the department had

contracted Stellenbosch University’s

BusinessSchooltoconducta diagnostic

and design evaluation of the impact

of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on

the Western Cape’s agriculture sector.

“Based on the findings, we’re

implementing a response strategy

that includes a range of events to get

young people excited about following

a career in agriculture, and play with

the latest types of technologies.”

Troskie said the department would

host a two-day drone workshop at

Elsenburg for about 30 people, followed

by a second one at the Outeniqua

Research Farm near George.

“People attending the workshops

will be invited to apply for the

opportunity to obtain their remote

pilot’s licence, the cost of which we

will support.” – Jeandré van der Walt

Technology

Western Cape agriculture prepares for ‘tech disruptions’

AslongasSouthAfrica’sdog
andcatownersfailtohavetheir
animalsvaccinatedagainst
rabies,asrequiredbylaw,efforts
tocurbthespreadofthisviral
zoonoticdiseasewillbeinvain.
Thiswasaccordingto
thespokespersonforthe
KwaZulu-NatalDepartment
ofAgricultureandRural
Development,MackMakhathini.
It followednewsthatfour
peoplehaddiedintheprovince
fromcanine-transmitted
rabiesinrecentmonths.
Makhathinisaidthat
officialsfromthedepartment
wereconcernedaboutthe
recentspikeinhumanrabies
deathsafterthelastcasewas
reportedinSeptember2018.
Hesaidthelatestvictimsin
theprovincehadbeena four-
year-oldboyinMaphumulo,
a 50-yearoldwomaninTrust
Feed,a 17-year-oldboyin
Ezinqoleni,anda 38-year-
oldmaninShakasHead.
Accordingtoa June 2019
communiquéfromtheNational

InstituteforCommunicable

Diseases’(NICD)Centrefor

EmergingZoonoticandParasitic

Diseases,fiveadditionalcases

ofhumanrabies(threein

theEasternCapeandtwoin

Limpopo)hadbeenreported

inthefirsthalfoftheyear.

Thisbroughtthetotalnumber

ofconfirmedhumanrabies

casesinSouthAfricaforthe

firstsixmonthsof 2019 tonine.

TheNICDpreviouslyreported

thata totalof 16 humanrabies

caseshadbeenreported

inSouthAfricain2018.

In 2017 thereweresix

cases,andin2016,two.

Kevinle Roux,thecontrol

animalhealthtechnicianat

thedepartmentandexpert

Rabies

Rabies claims nine human victims in the first half of 2019

adviser on rabies to the World

Health Organization, said that

KwaZulu-Natal’s under-resourced

provincial veterinary service

had little hope of preventing

the spread of rabies across the

province without support from

pet owners and other role players.

“If every pet owner were to

comply with their legal obligation

to ensure their dogs and cats were

vaccinated, and every bite victim

immediately sought treatment

following bites by suspicious

dogs [and cats], the recurrent

outbreaks would be completely

suppressed,” Le Roux said.

MEC of the department,

Bongi Sithole-Moloi, said the

province’s rabies challenge

amounted to an emergency, and

was being treated as such.

She added that the department

intended to send an application

to national government to have

the situation officially declared

an emergency so that resources

could be released to strengthen

efforts to control rabies in the

province. – Lloyd Phillips

cat and dog

owners must

have th em

vacc i nate d,

says department