By Sandra Nnaemeka
‘The State of Osun’ is leaving many States behind with its latest technology that will eliminate acrimony between herders and farmers.
The report by TechEconomy.ng indicates that Governor Rauf Aregbesola led Government will leverage the technology to tackle other security and emergency issues, if the technology is fully implemented.
The State, will in the coming week, launch unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as drone as a monitor tool to track movement of live stocks in the State.
To make this possible, the State has built a call centre and obtained a Short Code from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) which farmers and other residents can use to track the movement of live stocks in the environs.
The GPS technology will result in significant advances in the ease and flexibility of studying animal movement patterns, yet removing the barriers remain to identification as each live-stock shall become trackable.
The State of Osun developed low-cost and logistically simple approach solution shall be deployed among small and inexpensive GPS units to monitor cattle movements and habitat use and to assess the impact of cattle grazing on farmlands, the Commissioner for Innovation, Science and Technology, Engineer Oluremi Omowaiye, said ICTEL expo 2018 which commenced Wednesday in Lagos.
Engr. Omowaiye, also spoke on the impact of NCC’s short code on the project.
He said, “We are launching some unmanned aerial vehicle that will interface with our call centre. Through that platform, we want to ensure that all live-stocks will have an ID. So, when the live-stock comes to your farm, all you need to do is text the first three digits to the short code; once you do that you get a response from the call centre on who owns the live-stock. From the call centre, the owner will also be called.
“Apart from that, we are also going to use it for other services like ambulance services, because in the call centre you have linkage to the Army, the Police, and the security operatives”.
He said that the infrastructure to support the initiative has been developed by the State Government in partnership with other the private sector.
“We have done a lot; we have the infrastructure. We are working in the area of power; of course, the major challenge IT has in Nigeria is power. So, we are working on power generation in the State”, the Commissioner said.
So, we commend NCC for living up to expectations.
“When we started putting up an inquiry and call centre the need a short code arose; so that it will be easy for people to call. We approached NCC for a 3-digit short code which we are going to make a toll free line. NCC supported us. We are going to commission it next week”.
He also hinted on the State’s Industrial park, thus, “We are looking at building an industrial park. So that we won’t have some of these infrastructure scattered all over the State. We are discussing with some Chinese investors on the part. When that is in place you will have ICT centres and other infrastructure in there”, Engneer Omowaiye said.