Woman farmer in Kothagudem installs CCTV camera to keep thieves away

A woman farmer of Mallelamadugu village in Aswapuram mandal in the district who was vexed with thefts in her agriculture field has installed a CCTV camera, a device widely used by the police in criminal investigations

Kothagudem: Closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras, which are usually used for video surveillance in streets, shops and houses, are now appearing in farm fields as well.

A woman farmer of Mallelamadugu village in Aswapuram mandal in the district who was vexed with thefts in her agriculture field has installed a CCTV camera, a device widely used by the police in criminal investigations.

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The farmer, Padidam Varalakshmi, who lives alone, cultivates vegetables in her 20 guntas of land at the village. She is troubled by thieves, who have already stolen an irrigation pump set from her field. She suffered financially as thieves were also picking up vegetables that are due for harvest from her field.

In order to protect the crop, she used to stay in her vegetable garden until 8 pm. The neighbours who noticed the woman straining herself too much advised her to install CCTV cameras in the farm field. Though the idea sounded good, she did not know what a CCTV camera was or how to install it. She then consulted her brother Mallaiah, who with the help of a local technician, installed a solar powered CCTV camera with SIM card and alarm system to keep the thieves away from the farm field. She took a loan of Rs.10, 000 from her brother for the purpose, she said.

Speaking to Telangana Today, Varalakshmi informed that it was nearly one month since the CCTV camera was installed, and now, her vegetable garden was safe with no thefts so far. Her brother monitors the footage of CCTV on his mobile phone as she does not know how to handle a smartphone.

A few months ago, thieves had sneaked into her field and picked up a large quantity of cabbages that were ready for harvest. The menace of thieves lifting pump-sets has become a great trouble for farmers in the village. Sometime back, six pump sets were stolen at Mondikunta, a neighbouring village, she worried.

Varalakshmi revealed that until three years ago, she cultivated paddy but gave up paddy cultivation to take up vegetable cultivation, which she felt was profitable to some extent.