Leapfrogging Possibilities For Sustainable Consumption and ...

4.3.2 Africa
There are small or large-scale implementation of new technologies and ideas in different
parts of Africa. The following are examples from different countries covering livestock,
ICT
Livestock tracking
Herders in Angola, Botswana and South Africa track their cattle via GPS. Compared to
traditional herding this tracking system is a big leap with significant socio-economic
benefits. It helps avoid the economic loss attributed to cattle rustling related conflicts. For
instance, between 1999 and 2002, cattle raids in Kenya drained the national economy
hugely by 15 billion Kenyan Shillings (225 million US$) 52 . The system provides many
benefits for pastoralists, veterinary officers and government authorities. It can be used to
locate lost or stolen cattle, and to monitor and manage disease outbreaks.
Botswana is using the system to ensure the long-term security of its beef export market
and offers an additional marketing edge, enabling the country to compete worldwide for
new export orders. Livestock production has a share of 80 percent the major income
earner of the agricultural GDP in the country. Second to diamond, beef is an important
commodity Botswana has been exporting to EU. The use of the digital animal
Identification system has reduced cases of livestock theft that had earlier threatened
Botswana’s lucrative EU beef export market. The new system is a complete departure
from the traditional 'hot iron' branding and ear tagging that have little or none deterrent to
cattle thieves. The Livestock Identification and Trace-Back System (LITS) project is
implemented by the Department of Animal Production, Ministry of Agriculture.
From 2002-2004 alone, Botswana has significantly reduced incidences of cattle thefts by
at least 60%. The digital ID system uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
technology, which is safe, environmentally friendly, and tamperproof to identify
individual livestock throughout the country. The reticular bolus that the animal swallows
contains a RFID microchip, which is coated by a very hard ceramic. The bolus has
neither moving parts nor a battery and is inert, safe and does not react with stomach acids
and enzymes.The bolus is technically superior to other micro chips such as injected
micro-chip that is cheap but difficult to read, recover after slaughter and faces a
likelihood of ban on their use by the EU in the coming years as it can easily find its way
in the meat. Introduction of this system has greatly eliminated commercialization of
cattle rustling in Botswana.
Pilot testing of the same system is going on in areas of pastoralists in Kenya, to
individually identify a livestock, its owner, district, movement permits, and vaccination
records among a handful of other useful data. Integrating the bolus system with satellite
tracking technology using Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information
System (GIS) would not only be individually and digitally identified but would also be
traced to ascertain where it is at a given point in time.
Implementation of this digital livestock identification system in East Africa will open up
access to important livestock markets such as EU Other than managing cattle records and
52 ITDG (2004)
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