Farmers are faced with the challenge of diesel rebates and submitting tax claims to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) on the use of diesel on their farms. This is a tedious process and frustrates them as they have to keep close record of their usage. Therefore there is a need for assistance in this regard.
The Product Development Technology Station (PDTS) assisted a farmer from Soutpan in the Free State in designing a diesel tank monitor, called Precision Diesel, for Soutpan-boeredienste to solve the problem and do it at a more cost effective rate. The product’s development lead to it being launched commercially at the Nampo Harvest Day, an annual agricultural exhibition, in 2018. Similar products do exist, but are sometimes too complicated and costly for farmers to use.
The system logs diesel usage, whether used by tractors, trucks or vehicles on the farm, by requiring each driver to scan a registered RFID card before filling with diesel. Data captured part of the process include date and time, function or purpose of filling, specific area worked on, hours of work and litres diesel filled.
The PDTS designed an intuitive user interface that allows farmers to manage data and view usable reports of the diesel usage. This enables them to regulate the use, monitor it better and also provide SARS with qualified data, for example in the form of a PDF spreadsheet when claiming back tax returns.