According to Sarel Pretorius, chairperson of Agri North West’s Rural Safety Committee, these seasoned criminals were at it again this year.
“We know of the case of seed theft reported in Lichtenburg recently, where the criminals stole Dekalb seed bags worth R450 000.
READ Free State loses millions of rands in grain seed theft
“These criminals are resourceful and have been doing the rounds for years. [At] this time of the year, when farmers get ready to plant, they must up their security,” he said.
Pretorius added that getting your affairs on the farm in order was not enough: “Unfortunately, the police, lacking resources and political will, don’t have the capacity to proactively act on stopping these criminals, but in my years in the field, I can tell you that patrols in our neighbourhoods do have an impact in lowering crime rates.
“Farmers should therefore take their safety seriously by also participating in community patrols.”
Free State incidents
Dr Jane Buys, safety and risk analyst at Free State Agriculture, said the organisation knew of two incidents in the province, one in the Bethlehem area and the other in Ventersburg, with seed worth a combined R1,7 million stolen.
“It is vital that farmers have additional security measures in place to protect all their agricultural inputs such as seed, fertiliser, and diesel,” she said.
Buys advised farmers to secure their properties, especially with technology such as cameras and alarms that should be installed in or nearby stores to monitor movement to and from there.
She added that farmers needed to lock up their products, including seed and equipment, when not in use. “Don’t take a chance by leaving these assets in the field after a day of work, where they could most certainly be stolen.”
Buys added that there was a market for stolen seed and fertiliser. Incidents where seed bags specifically were stolen from farms were usually linked to organised crime syndicates that had the resources to transport these products.
“It is important to report these incidents to the police; otherwise, it hinders the investigation by specialist units,” she said.
Liza Bohlmann, media liaison for Bayer Crop Science sub-Saharan Africa, said that in Africa, many different syndicates targeted various agricultural inputs.
“This varies from outright theft to producing counterfeit products and fraudulently selling fake products under trusted brand [names]. Similarly, the criminal trend in South Africa that focuses on high-value farming inputs like Bayer’s Dekalb seed is worrying from both the farmer’s and our point of view,” she explained.
Bohlmann added that these criminal activities impacted food security, the cost of food, and farmers’ profitability.
“It further adds tremendous financial and logistical pressure on farmers, suppliers, and distribution channels to safeguard these products against theft and damage,” she concluded.
