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Freedom Mutanda Mutare Correspondent
Farmers in Middle Sabi, Chipinge, are living at the mercy of wild animals that are straying from a nearby conservancy, destroying crops as well as threatening human life. Farm 17 in Middle Sabi has been at the wrong end of human-wildlife conflict after a herd of buffalo which has been trespassing on the farm over the past week destroyed a four-hectare maize crop.

“These buffaloes come every night and destroy crops. We tried to fence but the animals destroy the fence and get into the fields where they leave a trail of destruction. We had a 17-hectare crop; so far, in the wake of the buffalo attack, four hectares have been left bare as the crops don’t have any future,’’ Mr Charles Chirimambowa, the farmer, lamented to The Herald.

For long, Middle Sabi farmers have complained about the human-wildlife conflict and numerous meetings have been held among stakeholders with no solution in sight.

‘’We phone the ZimParks people but they don’t come and if they do, they largely spend their time in the sheds and tell us to call them when buffaloes have entered the fields,’’ Grateful, Mr Chirimambowa’s son, said.

Middle Sabi is slowly coming out of its slumber as investors invade the area, while the Command Agriculture programme has also boosted farming in the area.

Mr Chirimambowa called on ZimParks officials to act as the situation was getting out of hand.
‘’I think if in the coming two to three weeks, there is no paradigm shift by the ZimParks officials to scare these beasts, I am likely to lose the remaining 13 hectares. Accordingly, I am appealing to the parent ministry to allow its officers to shoot to kill for us to realise something from the maize crop,’’ Mr Chirimambowa said.

Plans have been mooted to get donor funding to replace the fence in order to keep wildlife within the Save Conservancy. In one meeting, farmers were promised that there would be a rehabilitation of the fence courtesy of a “benevolent friend”.

“We dug some holes expecting the fencing to take place but, alas, the holes are there but we are still waiting for the Good Samaritan to come. We want to contribute in our small way to the economic revolution of our great country but these buffaloes have proved to be a pain in the neck,’’ Mr Chirimambowa said.