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.