11 Sep 2019

Human-wildlife conflict continues to be a major challenge for farmers in the South East District.

For the period of January 2015 to August 2019, the district recorded 47 cases of human-wildlife conflict, which animals caused destruction to crops, livestock, property and caused injuries to people.

The South East District Council chairperson Mr Phenyo Segokgo said at the full council session recently that apart from damaging crops, wildlife deprived farmers of their valuable livestock and property.

He said the human-wildlife conflict was largely attributed to human population growth, agricultural intensification and wealth, which were creating limited living space and resources for both human and wild animals.

He stated that the most problematic species were kudus, baboon, leopard, caracal, hyena, jackals and monkeys.

From the recorded incidents, 27 calves were lost as well as 39 chickens, 94 goats, seven sheep and four rabbits.
In return, farmers as a retaliation killed a total of 16 animals comprising of 11 kudus, two baboons, two impalas and a monkey.

Furthermore, the council chairperson noted that the department of wildlife and national parks was faced with the challenge of controlling human-wildlife conflict due to limited resources.

On other wildlife issues, Mr Segokgo regretted that the number of cape vultures residing at Manyelanong Hill had declined from 90 pairs in 2015 to 79 pairs and 27 chicks of late.

Regarding the district’s contribution to the national food security, Mr Segokgo told the council that they were expecting lower yields in crop production for the whole district.

He attributed this to high temperatures, adding that production would be below the targeted hectare in cereal.

However, he said due to the unpredictable weather, best management practices needed to be adopted to match the forecast and increase production.

Regarding fruit and vegetable production, he told the council that the district was slowly growing in terms of numbers of farmers and produce.

Mr Segokgo highlighted that in 2014 there were only 36 horticulturalists, but the figure had increased to 43 farmers of late, adding that the projects had employed 162 people as compared to 87 people in 2014.

He further pointed out that the total production increased from 1 253 tons to 2 155 tonnes and added that the school feeding programme was benefiting the farmers. ENDS