Raiders of the crop

As wild animals raid crops regularly, the state fails to provide adequate compensation for the loss.

If the growing frequency of erratic weather conditions, unavailability of fertiliser and paucity of workforce were not enough, farmers in the country report being faced with the challenge of saving their hard-grown produce from wild animals. As the Post reported on Thursday, farmers in Salyan have had to build a temporary pavilion in the middle of the field to keep a vigil as wild animals raid and destroy their ready-to-harvest crops. Farmers resort to beating corrugated zinc sheets to produce noise to scare the animals away. Farmers having to struggle with the crop raiders are not limited to Salyan though; it is a pan-national problem that continues to trouble the growers even as the state fails to provide adequate security and compensation for the loss.