Forty-nine different crops were cultivated, including grain and root staples, beans,
vegetables, fruits, condiments and various cash crops. The four most commonly grown
carbohydrate crops were maize, cassava (bitter and sweet), finger millet and sweet potatoes.
Beans, taro, sorghum and bananas were also grown.
Ninety per cent of farmers reported some degree of crop losses due to raiding by animals.
They were asked to rank the animals causing most damage. The top five ‘pest’ species
are shown in Table 10.3. Chimpanzees ranked 15, with 8.6% of farmers reporting crop-
raiding. Regarding vervet monkeys, these live outside the forest in open country and
raid fields away from the forest.
Hill investigated the factors that make some farms more susceptible to crop-raiding
than others. The location of the farm was very important. Farms closer to the forest edge
were most at risk, particularly from baboons and wild pigs. Those farms within 100 m
of the forest edge were at highest risk of raiding, while those farms 300 m or more from
the forest edge mostly avoided being raided. These farms were buffered by the farms
between them and the forest edge.
This raises a further important point. Traditionally farmers did not have their farms
right up against the forest edge because of the known problem of crop-raiding. It is
largely in the modern context of immigration that newcomers have been forced into this
marginal land. Hill found that Lugbara people and people from DRC were most likely
to have farms on the forest edge.
The fact that farmers plant their crops too close to the forest edge was also noted by
Muhumuza (2002) who emphasized the need for community education programmes to
inform people of the risk attached to this.
Hill found that the five crops most likely to be damaged, in order of rank, were as
follows: maize, beans, cassava, sweet potatoes and finger millet. Maize, the favourite for
wild animals, was eaten at all stages of development from the seeds to the mature cobs.
According to local farmers, crops were differentially eaten by different species: maize
was eaten by baboons, pigs, porcupines, guinea fowl, monkeys, civets and very occa-
sionally chimpanzees, whereas sorghum was rarely damaged by animals other than
birds. Bananas and taro were virtually ignored by all these vertebrate pests.
Methods of protecting crops included (not in rank order): snares, traps, shouting,
ringing bells, clapping hands, lighting fires, throwing stones, chasing with pangas, chasing
Crop-raiding 205Table 10.3: Top five species causing damage to farmers’ crops (modified from Hill 1997).
Animal Scientific name Per cent farms raided Farmers’ rank as
‘pest’
Baboon Papio anubis 79.8 1
Wild pig Potamochoerus porcus 78.2 2
Vervet monkey Cercopithecus aethiops 33.3 3
Porcupine Hystrix cristata 24.7 4
Birds: Weavers Ploceusspp. 32.2 5
Doves Columbasp.
Styreptoelia