Elephants devastate crop fields in Mashare

Farmers in the Mashare constituency in the Kavango East region are facing severe crop losses after elephants repeatedly invaded crop fields across several villages, destroying harvests and leaving families worried about food security.

In an interview with Namibian Sun last week, constituency councillor Petrus Kashumali said the elephant disturbances started around February and have continued affecting communities, including Baramasoni, Vikota, and Rupesho Tara Tara villages.

He said the problem is widespread and involves multiple farming households that rely entirely on subsistence farming for their survival.

“At the moment several villages are affected. It has become a major problem, and it is also becoming a safety concern for the community,” he said.

The councillor warned that many families in Mashare depend entirely on farming for food and survival.

“They were going to harvest, but now there will be nothing from their crop fields,” he said.

“What will they then eat if they only depend on farming and then there is nothing?”

Some of the affected villages fall under the Kapinga Kamuhari conservancy, where individuals operating under the conservancy are expected to respond and chase elephants away when they enter villages and crop fields.

“They are supposed to go there and check and even scare elephants. But the funny part is because they do not have guns, they can’t scare the elephants away,” he said.

Long wait for help

As a result, communities are forced to rely on armed rangers from the environment ministry whenever elephants invade their fields.

Kashumali, however, believes the ministry may be overwhelmed by the growing number of elephant incidents being reported from different villages.

“At times they do respond, but the cases were too many,” he said.

“I at one point also said maybe they are understaffed because if you call them today, they will tell you they are attending to a certain case at another village.”

According to him, some residents are forced to wait one or two days before officials arrive to respond to elephant reports.

“The damage is quite serious,” Kashumali stressed.

The councillor said local leaders approached the ministry after repeated elephant invasions, hoping intervention measures would drive the animals away from villages.

He revealed that one elephant was put down about a week ago after engagements with ministry officials.

“History tells us that when an elephant dies and others are watching, obviously they might also be scared and go far from where that incident is happening,” he said.

Kashumali said the elephants disappeared from the area for about a week after the incident but eventually returned.

“Now the whole of last week we were engaging ministry officials to go back there and maybe put one down again.”

Not enough compensation

The councillor also questioned government’s loss-offset compensation programme, saying it is "not enough".

Currently, beneficiaries receive around N$1 000 per hectare, despite farmers spending significantly more on clearing land, ploughing and planting, Kashumali explained.

He cited one farmer in Gwasha whose entire four hectares of crops were destroyed.

“If you calculate it, that person is going to get N$4 000. But when you do farming, N$4 000 is nothing.

“If you start from clearing the land, the ploughing and all that, you actually spend more than this N$4 000."

Kashumali said local leaders are now considering approaching the Office of the Prime Minister to assess the damage and possibly provide additional assistance to affected farmers.

“The ministry might not give what the farmers have lost. Maybe the Office of the Prime Minister might also step in and try to assist these people,” he said.

Kashumali also urged government to speed up compensation payments to affected farmers.

“They should not take months or even a year to give the farmers something,” he said.

“We are not sleeping. We are not quiet. We will try to assist them so that they get something from the government,” he added.