Farmers’ fury
Friday 5th April, 2024
There has been a steep rise in crop depredation by wild animals in Sri Lanka, and farmers are crying out for a solution. A group of cultivators took to the streets in Menikhinna, Kandy, on Wednesday, calling upon the government to help keep crop raiders at bay. They said the ever-increasing cost of production, lack of agrochemicals, etc., had adversely impacted their cultivations, and wild animals had aggravated their plight. Monkeys are considered the worst crop raiders, others being wild boar, elephants, peafowls, giant squirrels and porcupines.
Increasing the national agricultural output substantially should be one of the prongs of Sri Lanka’s economic recovery strategy. Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera has said Sri Lanka can easily achieve self-sufficiency in food if crop raiding can be minimised. According to him, in 2023, wild animals destroyed 300 million coconuts. They are believed to destroy about 40 percent of total crops annually.
During the first half of 2022, wild animals reportedly destroyed about 144,989 metric tons of 28 types of crops including paddy and vegetables, and 93 million coconuts; the overall loss amounted to Rs. 30,215 million (USD 87.5 million). The situation must be far worse at present, and it is only natural that farmers are staging street protests.
If extensive crop depredation and post-harvest losses, which amount to about 40 percent, could be minimised, the country will be able not only to achieve self-sufficiency in food but also to save a great deal of foreign exchange spent on agrochemicals, etc; there will also be no need to open up more land for cultivation, and it will be possible to mitigate water stress and environmental damage considerably.
Successive governments have failed to address the problem of crop raiding. Minister Amaraweera has sought to shift the onus for finding a solution to farmers. He is reported to have requested cultivators to propose alternative solutions so that the government could consider implementing them. If farmers have to find solutions to their problems themselves, what is a government there for?
Irate farmers employ some cruel methods to get rid of crop raiders. Quite a few wild animals, especially elephants and deer, become victims of shooting, hakkapatas (improvised explosive devices concealed inside fruits), electrical wire traps, poisoning, etc. The farmers who harm animals have incurred the wrath of animal rights activists. But their desperation knows no bounds; wild animals have graduated from raiding their crops to invading their houses. Monkeys even storm kitchens and make off with cooked food. They often attack women and children.
In 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture consulted various experts in a bid to solve the problem of crop raiding. A high-level committee consisting of experts on agriculture, veterinary science, zoology, natural sciences and conservation ecology concluded that population control of some of these animals may have to be seriously considered, according to Mongabay. They were of the opinion that there was no silver bullet as such, given the complexity of the problem.
They recommended ‘a data-driven, science-based approach to solving the problem’ as different regions experienced various facets thereof requiring diverse solutions. But it has not been established scientifically whether there have been huge increases in the populations of crop-damaging animals, or whether the number of animals that invade human habitats in search of food and water has increased. The government has sought to adopt measures such as exporting monkeys to China as a solution. Guns and air rifles have been issued to some farmers. It has also been proposed that an open season be declared on certain wild animals such as wild boar.
President of All Ceylon Agrarian Federation, Namal Karunaratne, who led Wednesday farmers’ protest in Menikhinna, made a sensible suggestion. Pointing out that the forest cover and animal habitats therein were shrinking due to human activity, he said animals were moving into villages in search of food and water. He called for action to ensure that wild animals had enough food and water in their natural habitats.
The government, he maintained, had to set aside part of its revenue derived from wildlife tourism for that purpose. His argument holds water. A sustainable solution to the ever-worsening problem of crop raiders wreaking havoc on villages, we believe, requires a strategy to prevent wild animals from leaving their natural habitats, however necessary other measures proposed by various experts may be.
