Assessment of crop raiding incidences by wild animals in Ngwedo Sub County, Buliisa District
Abstract
This study sought to assess crop raiding incidences by wild animals in the villages of Mubako,
Karatum and Muvule Nunda in Ngwedo Sub County, Buliisa district around Murchison Falls
National Park (MFNP). The specific objectives of the study include; (i) To assess the causes
of and effects of crop raiding around Murchison falls national park, (ii) To examine how crop
raiding is addressed and the effectiveness of the methods used and (iii) To analyze the
challenges of addressing crop raiding in Ngwedo sub county, Buliisa district.
Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Qualitative approach provided ways of
discerning, examining, comparing and contrasting, and interpreting meaningful patterns or
themes. Qualitative approach involved examining the assembled relevant data to determine
how research questions were answered at hand. Quantitative data analysis helped to analyze
and categorize frequencies and percentages. Simple descriptive tabulations were used for
quantitative analysis.
The study revealed that farmers are facing several challenges in addressing the challenge of
crop raiding which include, getting pieced by thorns, they get tired, sleepless nights, fear of
wild animals, sustaining injuries, getting arrested by rangers, sleepless nights during guarding
among others.
The results of this study concluded that food crops are the most raided crops within farmers
around Murchison falls national park compared to cash crops. Cassava is the most raided
crops by animals from Murchison falls national park followed by maize. Rice, g/nuts, fruits,
bananas and beans are also liked by avian species.
This study recommends that farmers should be encouraged to correctly time their crops when
planting such that by the time the food is finished in the Murchison falls national park, the
crops are already harvested since the seasonality of fruiting and ripening of both wild and
domestic crops tend to occur at the same time. This is influenced by seasonal patterns of
rainfall, which are similar for both wild and domestic plants. For the case of perennial crops,
they should be adequately safeguarded so as to minimize the consequences of crop raiding.