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Botswana: Birds Ravage Farmers' Harvest
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
3 April 2008
Posted to the web 3 April 2008
Patricia Maganu
Fear of rape and other forms of violence prevents farmers from protecting their crops against devastation by birds, farmers say.
Even though farmers mark 2008 as the year of good harvest, many say that they are worried that they will lose most of their crops to birds that feast on their crops.
Farmers assert that their efforts to keep birds away from their crops are hindered by lack of security at the fields.
They say they fear for their security when they are at the fields trying to keep the birds from eating their harvest.
The farmers all say that shooing birds away in the fields is not safe any more. Forty two year old Onalenna Kombani says she has been farming for most of her life but in the past few years she has not been able to go to the fields on her own to save her crops.
"You cannot go to the fields alone. Too many things can happen. At the time of harvest like now when people who stay in these forests know that there is something to eat in the fields, you cannot be safe," she says. The women are most vulnerable to assault.
"You can be raped or killed. I know one woman whose child was stolen while sleeping under a tree while the mother was busy chasing birds.
So, anything can happen," she added. Kombani says there are Zimbabwean nationals who stay in the forest and try living off food that is in the fields like water melons, sweet reed and anything they can lay their hands on.
Another farmer, Kesentseng Shabane says it is safer during the ploughing season. Criminals visit the fields to steal ripe fruit.
"That is the problem. They come here looking for food and if they find someone, they can do anything they want.
Old women have been raped and beaten," she says. Shabane says that it is not that they are too many birds this year, it is just the thought of going to the fields to shoo them and put your life in danger.
Women who especially have to spend the day at the fields chasing birds say that their lives are in danger. Priscilla Oathotse says that even if a man goes to the fields they are not likely to spend time shooing birds. "If you go with a man they might go somewhere around the fields to chop some firewood or do other work. They also have to be somewhere where they can make some money.
We cannot all go the fields," she says. Oathotse says she usually goes to the fields with her three year old son and she is afraid to put him down. "I have to chase birds and also keep an eye on him. I cannot even put him in the shade to nap. It is just too scary. Birds are going to finish our crops just because we are afraid," she said. She says scarecrows help for a limited period. "The first few days after that they realise it is not a person and they continue eating," she stated.
The Director of the Department of Crop Production, Molathegi Modise, says that they realise that birds are a problem. "They are not so many where we cansay that they are a hazard," he says. He says that though there have been no reports at his office, they are still taking steps to help the situation. "There are teams in all the regions that are trying to help the situation. Some of them are spraying and some of them are using explosives where there are sources of water," he said.
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Modise says that at the moment the problem could be shortage of manpower, but farmers should also take it upon themselves to chase the birds. Modise says they follow the birds in the forest where they breed but they cannot kill them all. He went on to say that the department is trying to educate people through campaigns and other means.
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| Copyright © 2008 Mmegi/The Reporter. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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