Economic Damage Due to Thryonomys Swinderianus and Atherurus Africanus in Rivers State

The damage done to farm crops by Thryonomys swinderianus and Atherurus africanus in four Local Government Areas of Rivers State; Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme was investigated in this research. Structured questionnaire was used to extract information from 100 farmers. Farms were broadly categorized into two for analysis. With an estimation guide list, estimate was made for each raided crop on a farm, an entire farm and all farms. The raided crops include cassava, cocoyam, threeleaf yam, maize, sugar cane, melon, tomato, banana, pineapple and pumpkin. No farm was attacked by A. africanus alone but 54% of farms were attacked by T. swinderianus alone and 46% by both animals. The estimated damage to farms attacked by T. swinderianus alone was 332750 naira but 468050 naira for farms attacked by both animals with T. swinderianus accounting for 54.26% of the damage and A. africanus accounting for 45.74%. The cumulative damage to all farms was 800800 naira; T. swinderianus accounting for 73.26% of the damage and A. africanus accounted for 26.74%. For all farms, percentage damage to raided crops are; cassava 46.5%, cane sugar 10.75%, maize 10.26% , pumpkin 9.22%, cocoyam 7.54%, melon 7.31%, threeleaf yam 4.74%, pineapple 1.95%, banana 0.96% and tomato 0.85%. For cassava, pumpkin, cocoyam, maize, melon and cane sugar, damage due to T. swinderianus was higher than that due to A. africanus with an average ratio of 2.7:1; for melon, it was 39:1. Statistically however the cumulative damage due to T. swinderianus and that due to A. africanus is not significant. Of the farms investigated, 23% experienced mild damage, 41% experienced moderate damage while 39% experienced severe damage. Average damage was 8008 naira while 0.19 hectares was the average farm size; so farmers lose 8008 naira each year to these “vertebrate agricultural pest” for every 0.19 hectares of farm. Keywords: Farms; Raided crops; Estimated damage; Level of damage; Vertebrate agricultural pest. DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/9-8-07 Publication date: April 30th 201