Student Corner
“My name is Neema Akonaay, a form four student (senior) in New Dawn Secondary School. Our school is located in the Northern part of Tanzania in Kilimanjaro region, Ishinde Village.
“The major economic activities in this area are crop farming and animal husbandry. More than 90% of people within this area are peasants. The main crops grown here are maize (corn) and beans, which are used as staple foods.
In our school this year, we planted five acres of maize and we are about to harvest.
However, with our expectation of having some harvest this year, there has been a problem of wild animals, especially groups of elephants destroying our crops. Every week at least some groups of elephants from Mkomazi National park come twice. They come at night when people are sleeping and eat and destroy our crops”.
As you can imagine, dealing with elephants is a BIG problem! We are currently researching some methods that are already being used in Tanzania and Kenya with a good success rate. One that looks promising is the use of a “Chile Pepper Fence”. This is a simple fence made of sisal rope that has been soaked in a mixture of used motor oil and ground chili peppers. Elephants have extremely sensitive noses, and can’t tolerate the scent, and so are inclined to leave the area alone. Corresponding to this is the use of bricks made of cow dung (which we have plenty of!) and chili powder. These can be burned at night to ward off night raids by the elephants. We’ll keep you “posted” on the possible fence project.
August 2023
“The major economic activities in this area are crop farming and animal husbandry. More than 90% of people within this area are peasants. The main crops grown here are maize (corn) and beans, which are used as staple foods.
In our school this year, we planted five acres of maize and we are about to harvest.
However, with our expectation of having some harvest this year, there has been a problem of wild animals, especially groups of elephants destroying our crops. Every week at least some groups of elephants from Mkomazi National park come twice. They come at night when people are sleeping and eat and destroy our crops”.
As you can imagine, dealing with elephants is a BIG problem! We are currently researching some methods that are already being used in Tanzania and Kenya with a good success rate. One that looks promising is the use of a “Chile Pepper Fence”. This is a simple fence made of sisal rope that has been soaked in a mixture of used motor oil and ground chili peppers. Elephants have extremely sensitive noses, and can’t tolerate the scent, and so are inclined to leave the area alone. Corresponding to this is the use of bricks made of cow dung (which we have plenty of!) and chili powder. These can be burned at night to ward off night raids by the elephants. We’ll keep you “posted” on the possible fence project.
August 2023