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11 April 2018 Photo Leonie Bolleurs
First accredited ICS training in SA presented at UFS
Prof Andries Jordaan, Head of DiMTEC, with Greg Archer from the United States Forest Services, and Yong Sebastian Nyam, a DiMTEC PhD student from Cameroon.

The University of the Free State’s (UFS) Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa (DiMTEC) and the Free State Umbrella Fire Protection Association (FSUFPA) presented the first training exercise in the Free State, offering practical experience regarding the implementation of the Incident Command System (ICS) under simulated emergency conditions.

An Exercise Coordination Team (ECT), consisting of US instructors, under the leadership of Mike Kopitzke from the United States Forest Services, together with Johann Breytenbach from FSUFPA and supported by local personnel, facilitated the exercise.

Training complete with sand table exercise 

This dual site desktop exercise took place at the Rooipoort Training Centre outside Dewetsdorp and the DiMTEC offices in the Agriculture Building on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus. The Incident Management Team (IMT) training – complete with a sand table exercise   was presented at Rooipoort, At the same time a simulation of an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) was offered at the DiMTEC offices. 

According to Prof Andries Jordaan, Head of DiMTEC, the exercise was based on a variety of actual scenarios that had previously taken place elsewhere in the Free State. The exercise simulated a train and bus accident on the Thaba Nchu road. “Using an incident like this keeps the training realistic and relevant,” he said.

In these exercises the work of different departments, including South African Police Services (SAPS), South African National Defence Force (SANDF), Transnet, Spoornet, Traffic Department, and Eskom are coordinated. “We would like to work with the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) to implement a uniform Incident management system in South Africa where all departments speak the same language and have the same understanding of the role and responsibilities of a command structure,” Prof Jordaan said.

Accredited training the outcome
In 2017 Prof Jordaan, General Elias Mahlabane from the SAPS, and Johan Breytenbach from the FSUFPA, attended an incident command course in California in the US. They were introduced to the National Incident Management System (NIMS) in the US. The system was implemented after lessons learned during 9/11. “According to the NIMS structure, all government organisations at all levels, as well as emergency agencies, had to standardise terminology and systems,” said Prof Jordaan.

Insight gained during the visit and a work relationship with the United State Forest Services, provided Prof Jordaan and Breytenbach the necessary background to conduct training for incident management teams.

Currently DiMTEC is offering accredited ICS 100, 200 and 300 courses. To qualify as incident command managers, students need to attend the ICS courses together with the practical training. As part of the training they also need to shadow a qualified ICS manager during two real incidents. These courses are taking place in conjunction with the FSUFPA. 

News Archive

Producers to save thousands with routine marketing strategies, says UFS researcher
2014-09-01

 

Photo: en.wikipedia.org

Using derivative markets as a marketing strategy can be complicated for farmers. The producers tend to use high risk strategies which include the selling of the crop on the cash market after harvest; whilst the high market risks require innovative strategies including the use of futures and options as traded on the South African Futures Exchange (SAFEX).

Using these innovative strategies are mostly due to a lack of interest and knowledge of the market. The purpose of the research conducted by Dr Dirk Strydom and Manfred Venter from the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of the Free State (UFS) is to examine whether the adoption of a basic routine strategy is better than adopting no strategy at all.

The research illustrates that by using a Stochastic Efficiency with Respect to a Function (SERF) and Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) that the use of five basic routine marketing strategies can be more rewarding. These basic strategies are:
• Put (plant time)
• Twelve-segment pricing
• Three-segment pricing
• Put (pollination)(Critical Moment in production/marketing process), and
• Pricing during pollination phase.

These strategies can be adopted by farmers without an in-depth understanding of the market and market-signals. Farmers can save as much as R1.6 million per year on a 2000ha farm with an average yield.

The results obtained from the research illustrate that each strategy is different for each crop. Very important is that the hedging strategies are better than no hedging strategy at all.

This research can also be applicable to the procurement side of the supply chain.

Maize milling firms use complex procurement strategies to procure their raw materials, or sometimes no strategy at all. In this research, basic routine price hedging strategies were analysed as part of the procurement of white maize over a ten-year period ranging from 2002–2012. Part of the pricing strategies used to procure white maize over the period of ten years were a call and min/max strategy. These strategies were compared to the baseline spot market. The data was obtained from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s Agricultural Products Division better known as SAFEX.

The results obtained from the research prove that by using basic routine price-hedging strategies to procure white maize, it is more beneficial to do so than by procuring from the spot market (a difference of more than R100 mil).

Thus, it can be concluded that it is not always necessary to use a complex method of sourcing white maize through SAFEX, to be efficient. By implementing a basic routine price hedging strategy year on year it can be better than procuring from the spot market.

Understanding the Maize Maze by Dr Dirk Strydom and Manfred Venter (pdf) - The Dairy Mail


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