Survey shows most farmers use technology to address crime

Like our global counterparts, South Africa is knee-deep in the fourth industrial revolution, using artificial intelligence and ChatGPT to help solve some of our daily problems.

The Free State Agriculture (FSA) / Vrystaat Landbou (VL) Rural Safety Committee conducted a survey in June 2024 among farming communities in the Free State to determine the use of technology to combat crime in farming communities.

The results of the survey were presented during a Farm Security and Safety conference on 21 June 2024 at Emperor’s Palace in Johannesburg which was funded by the magazine Farmers Weekly.


The survey revealed that 86% of farmers are involved in a safety and contingency plan under a Farmer’s Association with the SAPS within the National Rural Safety Strategy (NRSS); and that 96% of farmers use technological tools and equipment to address and prevent crime.
Most survey participants(74%) indicated that they have technological tools such as radios, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) and Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) cameras (83%).

Radios connected to a control room in their respective areas have been used in 56% of reported incidents.

Two out of three farmers rely on informer or informer networks to address crime. With specific reference to livestock theft, participants indicated that in 67% of cases, successes and recoveries on livestock theft occurred from informer networks together with the Stock Theft Units (STUs) of SAPS. Out of 2805 animals stolen, 2142 animals worth R11.29 million were recovered. Only 11.43% of these recoveries involved camera networks.

Farming communities rely on private security companies, control rooms, technology such as radios and cameras, involvement in a safety and contingency plan within the NRSS, and informer networks to ensure a safer agricultural sector in the Free State. The results of the survey indicated that safety in farming communities and rural areas cannot be attributed to one aspect or tool alone, but rather to a combination of different aspects, sources, and equipment, with collaboration playing a big role in ensuring a safe environment. The survey also indicated that farming communities lose hundreds of millions of rands to crime annually.

Even with the availability of new technologies, addressing criminality effectively requires cooperation between farmers, the SAPS and private security who are already servicing some of the rural communities and farming communities in the Free State within the NRSS.