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LETTER FROM LIVINGSTONE ... AND BEYOND
Elephant Pepper
By Gill Staden
Elephants and
farmers have never been good friends. Elephants often visit farms
to eat the crops; the farmers in retaliation have killed elephants.
In Livingstone our elephant population is growing and more and more
farms are being raided and crops destroyed. Livingstone needs
elephants for its tourist operations but the farmers cannot afford
to have their crops eaten and trampled. So, what is the solution?
The Elephant
Pepper Development Trust (EDPT) set up an office in Livingstone a
few years ago and started their imaginative solution to the
problem. Their project is based on the fact that elephants hate
chillies. The elephant’s trunk is very sensitive and does not like
the chemical, capsaicin, which is found in chillies.
Farmers are
encouraged to grow chilli plants around their crops – the elephants
are put off by these plants. The chillies can also be used to
manufacture elephant deterrents. They can be crushed and mixed with
old engine grease which is smeared on a string fence around the
crops – elephants do not like to cross this fence. The chillies can
also be mixed with elephant dung and made into briquettes which can
be burnt at night – the smoke from the fires keeps the elephants
away. And lastly, all projects initiated by the Trust can be
assured of a market for their excess chillies – EPDT buys them all
and sends them to South Africa to make Elephant Pepper Sauces.
The research
for this project was started by Dr Loki Osborn in Zimbabwe in 1997.
Dr Osborn studied the reaction of elephants to chillies and realised
that there had to be a low tech solution for rural farmers to keep
elephants off their crops, hence the setting up of the project based
on chillies. EDPT also encourages farmers to grow alternative crops
like herbs and vegetables so supplement their diets.
The Elephant
Pepper Development Trust is one of the twelve projects contesting
the BBC World Challenge. The winner of the World Challenge is found
by voting on line. Vote for them on
www.theworldchallenge.co.uk.
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October
2005