17 Jun 2025

Pandamatenga subsistence farmers have raised concern over the destruction of crops by wild animals such as elands.

Speaking in an interview, one farmer Mr Kholisani Mpofu stated that the animals had destroyed close to 10 hectares of his farm where he planted sorghum.

He said  elands were migrating from Zimbabwe traversing through Pandamatenga unfenced area where the subsistence farms were located.

Mr Mpofu said  the animals had established a pattern of invading their farms at night to feed on the crops then travel back to the Botswana- Zimbabwe boundary.

He indicated that since March he had been spending nights at the farm in order to scare the animals after they ravaged a portion of his crops.

The farmer said elands targeted sorghum cobs now that it had ripened and ignored the stalk. 

He said some commercial farmers had dug water holes within their farming paddocks and left the gates open which attracted animals into the farming area from the forest.

Mr Mpofu said due to 2025 being a good cropping season, many animals had migrated to the farms for abundant food and water.

He said they were pinning their hopes on the projected game proof fence project protecting subsistence farms funded by Kavango Zambezi Transfontier Conservation Area (KAZA) which was still at inception stage.

Mr Mpofu said Wildlife Conservation and National Parks Act compensation guidelines did not cover eland hence damages caused by the species were suffered by the farmers.

For his part Department of Wildlife and National Parks- Principal Veterinary Officer, Dr Karabo Danster acknowledged that they had received reports about the elands migrating into the farming area. He said Pandamatenga, being squeezed between forest reserves and Chobe National Park, experienced animal invasions from time to time especially when farms had crops.

He said currently their department deployed a team to capture animals within the fenced area in the commercial farms.

Dr Danster advised that farmers should camp at their farms to protect their crops, adding they were allowed to kill the elands as stipulated in the WCNP Act.

He said the P11.5 million KAZA funded solar powered game proof fence covering 22 kilometres would eradicate human-wildlife conflict in Pandamatenga. ENDS