Wild animals wreak havoc on cane farmers
Saturday, 01 December 2012 00:00
From George Maponga in Masvingo
Marauding wild animals have destroyed nearly 1000 hectares of sugar cane at
Mkwasine Estates and surrounding areas in Chiredzi, severely crippling
operations of hundreds of resettled farmers in the area.
Wild animals such as elephants, buffaloes, baboons and monkeys from Save
Valley Conservancy, Gonarezhou National Park and other private wild life
sanctuaries have been roaming freely in the sugar cane estates in Mkwasine
destroying vast swathes of cane crop in the process.
Over 500 resettled farmers are affected.
Zimbabwe Sugarcane Development Association chairman Mr Edmore Veterai
yesterday said hundreds of farmers at Mkwasine Estates and surrounding areas
were facing a bleak farming season as result of the damage caused by wild
animals.
Mr Veterai said there was need for contingency measures to be taken to
salvage the farmers’ operations, which are on the verge of collapse.
“On average each of the hundreds of affected farmers has since the beginning
of this year lost about 45 percent of their cane crop to wild animals which
are roaming freely in the Lowveld.
”The wild animals are elephants, buffaloes, baboons and monkeys which our
investigations have proved they are coming from Save Valley Conservancy,
Gonarezhou National Park and private game parks in the Lowveld,” said Mr
Veterai.
He said they had already engaged the National Parks and Wildlife Management
Authority to intervene and allow farmers to shoot the marauding wild
animals.
“The worst affected farmers are in Mkwasine, Mapanza, and Porepore sugar
estates and most of the cane farmers might record heavy loses and fail to
repay bank loans if the problem of rampaging wild animals is not urgently
attended to,” Mr Veterai said
The Zimbabwe Sugarcane Development Association said farmers were raising
funds to set up a perimeter fence that would stop wild animals from prowling
on their sugar cane.
Communities around the wildlife-rich Save Valley Conservancy and the
Gonarezhou National Park have over the past few years borne the brunt of
wild animals that are roaming freely and terrorising them after the collapse
of a perimeter fence that used to provide a barrier between the communities
and wildlife.