Keywords: Digitalization, Rural Development
The project was an innovative initiative from Gauteng Veterinary Services to extend service delivery to rural communal farmers. It was the first of its kind to be implemented in the form of a partnership with various stakeholders. The project which uses an Animal Identification system.
The systems uses electronic ear tags and stock cards to capture an animal’s all health records and upload them into a computer. The system therefore facilitates the keeping of electronic records on the health status of each individual animal and implementation of an effective livestock management program to monitor productivity, animal numbers and disease surveillance.
Each time services are provided to the farmers, the ear tags of the respective animals are scanned, new records are captured and uploaded in the computer. The veterinarian and technician will have an opportunity to study the records and offer advice to individual farmers as well as plan livestock programmes (e.g vaccination, deworming, etc) for the whole community in an efficient manner.
The novelty of the project is in the effective partnership and collaborative approach to problem solving together with the farming communities and other stakeholders. The goal of the project was to facilitate service delivery to resource poor farmers in Gauteng region through partnership with Government and other stakeholders. Introduction of this system revolutionized the rural livestock farming sector in this area leading to increased production and profitability by farmers.