Kwale livestock farmers find ingenious way to stop cows damaging crops

For many years, farmers in Lungalunga, Kwale County, have been in conflict as a result of stray livestock invading people’s farms and destroying crops.

The cases were rampant during planting season, threatening food security in an area where drought is cyclical.

However, to prevent such conflict, farmers have come up with a new invention.

A visit to Mkudura village in Dzombo location makes one think that there is a livestock disease outbreak, because all the cows, goats and donkeys have their noses and mouths covered with a ‘mask’.

But this is not the case.

The mask is a piece of plastic ingeniously cut and placed over an animal’s nose and mouth.

This prevents the animals from eating people’s crops, said Ms Umazi Chakaya.

“They used to untether themselves and graze in maize fields. Sometimes they would trespass into a neighbour’s farm and this would cause conflict,” said Ms Chakaya, a livestock farmer.

Using recycled plastic bottles, farmers attach strings to the sides of the bottle, tie them to an animal’s neck and cover their mouth and nose.

They are five-litre plastic bottles that have four holes on each corner to allow the cows to breathe.

Dzombo in Lungalunga constituency is one of the largest food-producing areas in Kwale where vegetables, fruits, maize, rice and green grams are grown.

Ms Chakaya, who owns seven cows, says that this does not prevent the cows from feeding.

She explained that the livestock do not wear masks the whole day.

They are only placed on cows when they are in a shed in the homestead or when they are being taken to grazing fields far from cultivated land.

“We do this because we cannot control all the cows as we walk them to the fields. You have to pass between cultivated land to get to the fields,” she said.

Vura Mwayama, another farmer, said the masks have helped reduce conflict.

“We had a challenge of solving cases every planting season with neighbours whose farms are adjacent to each other. The cows would leave at night and eat at least half an acre of maize plantation belonging to a neighbour,” he said.

He explained that the owners of the cow would face losses because they would need to sell the same cows to raise money to compensate their neighbours for the damage.

“We thought about a way to end this problem. So we used water bottles and other plastic bottles,” said Mr Mwayama.

He said the masks had only become more common in the last four years as more people are practising farming to feed a rapidly growing population.

“In previous years, most of the people did not practise farming. And since the population was low, there was quite a distance between farms neighbouring each other and hence no cases of trespassing,” he said.

For the animals to drink water, Mr Mwayama explained, the masks do not have to be removed. All they have to do is dip their mouth in a basin and suck in water that fills the base of the bottle.

Though the masks provide a solution for one of their biggest problems, they come with a challenge, explained Mangale Kabata, another farmer.

Some mischievous residents, he said, would untie a neighbour’s cows at night, let them eat crops from their farm and then report to the chief the following day to demand compensation.

“For this reason, the majority of us were forced to sleep outside just to be on the lookout for such an occurrence,” he explained.

The elderly Mr Kabata explained that since they started using the masks, farmers’ harvests have risen and there are fewer losses.

Mr Kabata also said that this has increased their food security and the only threat they experience now is drought.

Area Chief Mohammed Matepwe is also happy that farmers are using the masks. He explained that he would be woken up in the middle of the night by villagers reporting that their neighbour’s cows had invaded their farms.

“This has also helped us live and sleep peacefully. Even when the cow accidentally cuts its rope, it is just directed to its owner without any fear they would destroy crops,” he explained.