Rs.17 to 20 Bn lost yearly due to crop damage by wild animals – HARTI

Agriculture and Plantation Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said that a survey conducted by the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agricultural Research and Training Institute (HARTI) revealed that crop damage caused by wild animals would cost the country between Rs.17 to 20 billion per year.

Toque Monkeys are the main cause of crop damage. Crop damage caused by peacocks, porcupines, wild boar and Giant squirrels has increased. All strategies implemented so far to prevent crop damage from wild animals have failed. The country loses over 31,000 metric tonnes of vegetables and fruits annually to wildlife damage. In 2022, the amount of coconuts eaten and destroyed by Toque Monkeys exceeded 200 million coconuts. The Minister said that due to this, requests from the Agriculture Ministry to provide shot guns to protect the crops by the farmers across the country have increased.

Two programs to provide air rifles to farmers in the Hambantota district to protect crops were carried out at Lunugamwehera and Suriyawewa on Saturday (4). These programmes were held at the Lunugamwehera Palm Development Board and the Suriyawewa Divisional Secretariat.

A farmer gets an air rifle from Agriculture and Plantation
Minister Mahinda Amaraweera.

The Sri Lanka Hadabima Authority has implemented the scheme to provide air rifles on a 50 percent loan relief basis.The Government bears 50 percent of the value of the air rifles and the remaining 50 percent must be paid by the farmers.

The use of Air rifles is not a permanent solution to extermination of wild animals to the problem of crop damage.

The only alternative is to control the wildlife population. Under the first phase, initial steps were taken to provide 100,000 toque monkeys to zoos in China, but due to a lawsuit filed by a group claiming to be animal friendly associations, the work had to be stopped midway.

But it has failed to provide answers to the farmer problem so far. Therefore, the Minister also mentioned that in the future, even ammunition guns will have to be issued at the request of the farmers. The Minister said that under this programme, more air rifles will be provided throughout the country next year and he has advised that these air rifles should not be used for public and if they do so, the law will be strictly enforced against those people.

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