Senegal’s ‘digital shepherd’ aims to outsmart cattle thieves 🐄🇸🇳

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In Senegal, technology is quietly becoming part of the fight against cattle theft. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has just launched a pilot program pairing GPS collars with a mobile tracking app for livestock. The initiative currently involves selected herders in the Kaffrine and Louga regions.

GPS collars keep watch over the herd 📍🐄

The system is straightforward: animals wear collars fitted with GPS trackers, linked to an app that follows their movements. With this setup, herders gain information to locate their animals more easily and strengthen their security.

The goal is twofold. First, the tool is meant to improve livestock monitoring. Second, it’s designed to help prevent and fight theft, a persistent threat to pastoral livelihoods. The pilot marks a new step in Senegal’s broader push toward digital traceability for its cattle herds.

Building a national identification and traceability system 🔎🐄

The project sits within a larger effort: Senegal’s national system for livestock identification and traceability (SNITB). The government approved the underlying studies in December 2025, following a national workshop held on December 23 and 24 in Diamniadio.

The workshop reportedly brought together public authorities, private sector players, professional organizations, and technical partners. Discussions centered on the role of innovation — and specifically, how tech startups could help tackle cattle theft.

A digital answer to an economic problem 💰📲

Beyond security, this is an economic and social issue too. In Senegal, cattle theft reportedly costs around 2 billion CFA francs a year — roughly $3.2 million. For herders, those losses threaten their livelihoods directly. More broadly, the problem weakens communities across several regions that depend on livestock farming.

In response, Senegal is betting on a collective, tech-driven approach, calling on communities, public authorities, and the private sector to help build mechanisms that boost both security and traceability.

Through this pilot, the FAO aims to test how well digital tools actually work on the ground. If it succeeds, GPS collars and the tracking app could point to a new way of watching over livestock — one that blends traditional herding practices with geolocation technology.

So, do you think GPS collars and mobile apps can genuinely help reduce cattle theft in Senegal — and elsewhere in Africa? Let us know in the comments.