03 Mar 2019

The planting season is a nightmare for most farmers in the North West District due to elephants’ invasion.

   Ms Kungo Difongo, who is an arable farmer in Sexaxa in the North West District, said in an interview that she was afraid that her labour may never pay off as her crops have been reduced to a few yeilds or nothing in some instances over the years.

The 65-year-old Ms Difongo, who is a farmer of repute, said she ensured her large farm was tilled every year and practiced row planting. 

She noted with sadness that all her labour was in vain annually since elephants raided her crops before her produce could become ripe.

Ms Difongo said the elephants had already invaded her farm on two occasions this year while her crops were still at the infancy stage.

She said government’s efforts in assisting them went to waste since farmers made a loss. Ms Difongo said the money she spent on hiring people to assist in clearing weeds amounted to P1 900 this year, saying she may never recover it elephant continued to raid her farm. 

She said although she kept reporting to the Department of Wildlife and National Parks for compensation, it was a long process.

Ms Difongo is of the view that safari companies and their activities have invaded elephants’ habitats, which has in turn driven elephants to residential areas.

Ms Difongo also said government should allow farmers to scare elephants away through shooting, noting that elephants feared gun sounds.

For 76-year-old Ms Etsenang Masike, a farmer at Sexaxa who is also a farmer of repute for over 20 years, she said elephants usually raided their farms between March and April. 

However, Ms Masike said due to droughts elephants have resorted to raiding their farms as early as January, saying her farm has already been invaded by the animals in early February.

She said the unfortunate part was that once elephants destroyed the farm fence they made a way for cattle to carry on.

Ms Masike said government assistance to farmers in ploughing was an unfortunate act since farmers made a loss due to elephants. She also the compensation was not enough for survival. 

She said she annually spends monies on 1 000 logs to strengthen her three hectare farm but that elephant still found a way.

Ms Masike noted, however, that wildlife contributed to the country’s revenue and developments which she said was an indirect benefit to farmers. She said the government should consider drilling boreholes for elephants at their habitats as an intervention to reduce the destruction endured by farmers.

Another intervention, she said would be for the government to make burrows around farms to scare away the jumbos, saying the exercise would be expensive for farmers.

Another farmer of Sexaxa, 36-year-old Ms Galeeme Maitumelo said the high population of elephants was a challenge as they competed for food at their habitats, leading them to harass villagers.

Ms Maitumelo, therefore, said culling of elephants was a viable solution since they had a high birth rate. 

She said culling could be annually per districts with heightened human-wildlife conflict in the country. 

In an interview, DWNP problem animal control officer in Maun, Mr Gilbert Monnawalesole confirmed the department received concerns from farmers about wild animals on almost a daily basis.

Mr Monnawalesole observed that compensating farmers remained a challenge since the budget was always depleted as cases were reported regularly.

Nonetheless, he said when funds were available the compensation process was faster. 

He observed that the office has successfully managed to pay some outstanding compensations in the 2018/19 budget. Mr Monnawalesole said the department encouraged farmers to use interventions such as chili pepper, traditional methods of drumming and making burrows around the farms, noting that the latter has proven to be effective.

He also said the department has recorded human deaths resulting from wild animals in the district although he did not have the actual statistics at the time of interview. ends