Abstract
The damage done to farm crops by Thryonomys swinderianus and Atherurus africanus in four Local Government Areas of Rivers State; Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme was investigated in this research. Structured questionnaire was used to extract information from 100 farmers. Farms were broadly categorized into two for analysis. With an estimation guide list, estimate was made for each raided crop on a farm, an entire farm and all farms. The raided crops include cassava, cocoyam, threeleaf yam, maize, sugar cane, melon, tomato, banana, pineapple and pumpkin. No farm was attacked by A. africanus alone but 54% of farms were attacked by T. swinderianus alone and 46% by both animals. The estimated damage to farms attacked by T. swinderianus alone was 332750 naira but 468050 naira for farms attacked by both animals with T. swinderianus accounting for 54.26% of the damage and A. africanus accounting for 45.74%. The cumulative damage to all farms was 800800 naira; T. swinderianus accounting for 73.26% of the damage and A. africanus accounted for 26.74%. For all farms, percentage damage to raided crops are; cassava 46.5%, cane sugar 10.75%, maize 10.26% , pumpkin 9.22%, cocoyam 7.54%, melon 7.31%, threeleaf yam 4.74%, pineapple 1.95%, banana 0.96% and tomato 0.85%. For cassava, pumpkin, cocoyam, maize, melon and cane sugar, damage due to T. swinderianus was higher than that due to A. africanus with an average ratio of 2.7:1; for melon, it was 39:1. Statistically however the cumulative damage due to T. swinderianus and that due to A. africanus is not significant. Of the farms investigated, 23% experienced mild damage, 41% experienced moderate damage while 39% experienced severe damage. Average damage was 8008 naira while 0.19 hectares was the average farm size; so farmers lose 8008 naira each year to these “vertebrate agricultural pest” for every 0.19 hectares of farm. Keywords: Farms; Raided crops; Estimated damage; Level of damage; Vertebrate agricultural pest. DOI : 10.7176/JBAH/9-8-07 Publication date : April 30 th 2019
Highlights
Every year, rodents account for billions of dollars in lost crops as they destroy crops such as rice, sorghum, millet, maize, wheat, coconut, cocoa, oil palm and sugarcane (Ntiamoa-Baidu, 1997; Smith, 2005)
The cumulative damage to all farms was found to be eight hundred thousand eight hundred naira, Thryonomys swinderianus accounting for 73.26% of the damage while Atherurus africanus accounted for 26.74% of the damage
4.0 CONCLUSION The estimated damage to farms attacked by Thryonomys swinderianus alone was three hundred and thirty two thousand seven hundred and fifty naira while the estimated damage to farms attacked by both animals was found to be four hundred and sixty eight thousand and fifty naira (468050) with Thryonomys swinderianus accounting for 54.26% of the damage and Atherurus africanus accounting for 45.74% of the damage
Summary
Rodents account for billions of dollars in lost crops as they destroy crops such as rice, sorghum, millet, maize, wheat, coconut, cocoa, oil palm and sugarcane (Ntiamoa-Baidu, 1997; Smith, 2005). Thryonomys swinderianus is a great pest of many cultivated crops having been known to do great economic damage to farmers for which the Food and Agricultural Organization, FAO, in 1997 classified it as a vertebrate pest of maize, sugar cane, rice and cassava (Ntiamoa-Baidu, 1997; Merwe, 2000). Greater cane rat is a major rodent pest of cassava that causes the greatest damage to cassava; it cuts down the stem, chews it and feeds on the storage roots (James et al, 2000). They raid cassava and yam plantations in farms in local areas and have been termed local pests (Agricultural Nigeria, 2014). Studies carried out by Uloko et al, 2017 on the evaluation of wildlife pests on rural farms in Benue State, Nigeria, indicated that Thryonomys swinderianus was the most disturbing crop raider accounting for 25% of crop raiding in the study area
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