BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – ONE of the major challenges to local farmers is no longer the availability of arable land or the threat posed by humans, but the constant damage caused by the seemingly friendly green Vervet monkeys.
In recent times, local farmers have had to battle with difficulties relating to irrigation and human resource to work on their farms. And more recently, climate change has brought unprecedented negative effects to the island’s agricultural sector. Today however, one of the most-threatening challenges is competing with monkeys that often destroy a crop within a matter of hours.
Speaking to SKNVibes, Agricultural Officer Eric Browne said the upsurge in monkey interferences has been an emerging threat to agricultural development. He noted that farmers stand to lose all of their crops if the problem is not urgently addressed.
“The farm areas have been greatly affected especially those in the hillsides. Monkeys eat just about everything we eat and so as soon as a farmer plants, the monkeys just go and destroy the crop,” Browne said.
The monkey population is considerably larger than that of humans, according to Browne, which would “definitely be difficult” to control. He added that due to the increases in population, the mammals have made their way across the land, affecting not only hillside farmers, but also those on the plains.
In highlighting possible countermeasures, Browne said although terminating the entire species would not be recommended, a significant number of monkeys would have to be killed in order to reduce the population. He further stated that studies should be undertaken to ascertain the best possible manner to address the issue.
“Because monkeys are indigenous to the island and have carved a niche for themselves in the island’s tourism product, it would not be wise to terminate the species, especially if we care for the well-being of the ecology. However, we must develop control measures to reduce the monkey population by a good amount.
“We must study the monkeys and their dynamics: understand breeding and feeding patterns, population growth and their movement across the land. Then, we would know how to deal with control,” Browne added.
The Agricultural Officer recommended that other preventative methods would be to relocate farmers, re-establish monkey feeding resources farther in the hills and use electrical fencing to ward-off intruding monkeys.
Proper control mechanisms would ensure that our food security no longer remains under threat by these monkeys and farmers would be encouraged to develop sustainable agricultural practices,” Browne said.
