Farmers who have not yet jumped on the technology wagon should seriously consider it because with mobile data devices they could manage and control a huge part of their farming practices.
With the right technology, farmers can control anything from your pump controls, irrigation systems, gate and security systems and dam levels with only a mobile phone – even while being away from your farm.
Mobile network technology using SIM cards enable all these technologies to communicate with each other.
For many farmers, the question is: “How do I manage all these SIM cards and technology simultaneously without missing a beat?”
According to Hein Koen, director of Flickswitch, a company that specialises in managing large numbers of SIM cards, there are a variety of technologies available for a farmer to manage his risks.
The Flickswitch platform, SIMcontrol, works with pre-paid SIM cards, which helps farmers to control their spend on a day-to-day basis.
“You decide how much airtime or data you would like to load on your SIM cards and only you can decide when to increase or reduce the spend on them. In this way you can manage your risk proactively and will not be receiving any huge bills at the end of the month which you didn’t budget for,” said Koen.