Shocking solution to farm theft

In 2011 the annual cost of farm theft to Jamaican farmers was conservatively estimated at $5 billion, and nine years later with that figure having jumped exponentially, farmers have again been left to fight not only the elements in their drive for good security, but rampaging thieves as well.

There is no provision in the 2020-21 Budget for addressing praedial larceny, and as diehard farmers continue in their persistence to toil for the benefit of others, we highlight here today for their benefit a state-of-the-art electronic fencing system which is designed to deliver a non-lethal but effective dose of electricity to would-be thieves that will hurt but not kill them.

Managing Director of Stinga Limited Julian Spence, which offers the electric fencing service, believes it is a very cost-effective solution for farmers. This is because in addition to clients like Digicel, RJRGLEANER Communications Group and National Water Commission, the company has had tremendous success with a number of poultry farmers contracted to Jamaica Broilers, who were at their wits’ end until they utilised this electric option.

“The baby chicks were usually stolen within the first weeks when thieves would cut the coop fence and the young birds would run to them, instead of running away. They would just scoop hundreds of them up in a chicken feed bag in a short space of time and be gone,” explained.

The presence of security guards on the farms did not deter the thieves in any way and in addition to the loss of chicks and feed, the farmer was also faced with a staggering cost for an ineffective security service.

There are lots of cases where once the would-be thieves see the electrical fence they don’t even bother to trouble it. The braver ones who try, once they hear the alarm or get hit are not minded to try again, according to Spence. “It gives a severe shock, it is painful,” he advised.

Stinga, which has received approval from the Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ), as well as the government electrical inspector, is the only entity so licensed to operate in Jamaica, and is only for commercial and industrial properties.

Some clients are usually tentative at first, given fears about the risk of accidental electrocution, but Spence explained that there is little to no risk of that happening based on the regulations which govern its operations. The electrical fence must be installed inside a perimeter fencing with warning signs prominently displayed every three metres on the outer fence. In addition, the regulations speak very clearly as to how the electric fence must be installed.

“You cannot electrify barbed wire or razor wire for the simple reason that the person must be able to escape from it. So if you hold on to the electric fence it is smooth just like regular wire, so your automatic response to get away from the fence will allow for that, whereas if you hold on to the barbed or electric wire it can hook you and the electricity can kill if you are there for 10 minutes or more.”

Essentially the electric fence is a combination of very thin two-milimetre strands of plain wire run through insulators at a full height of fence of 30 strands at 10 centimetres apart, going all the way to the top with a electrical pulse generated from a battery which is recharged continuously by the system. Most electric fencing, however is mounted atop a concrete fence.

If someone attempts to cut, or in some way short-circuit or ‘bridge’ the fence, this can trigger a combination of alarms – a blaring siren, flashing lights, while tripping an alarm monitored by response team from Hawkeye Electronic Security Limited. Because it is powered by an internal battery source, the Stinga electric fence continues to operate at full force in the event of a power outage and is ideal for remote locations such as cell tower sites or radio transmission antennae.

“We connect to it by what we call an SMS communicator, so we put a sim card in there and it reads and sends a test signal 24 hours and tell us if there is low battery, but most importantly, we can send a message to it to turn the fence on or off.

“When the subcontractors, or Digicel people go to the site they call their head of communication and say we are at the location, disarm the fence for us. The person then sends the message to the system to disarm and a little light comes on telling them the system is disarmed, so it is okay to go access the site. When they are finished, they call and the person rearms the system,” Spence explained.

Agri-Tech highlights new and emerging technology which impacts all aspects of agriculture. We welcome your comments and queries and look forward to hearing you by phone at 876-818-9284 or email at christopher.serju@gleanerjm.com.