Farmers in Yunlin County “fed up” with damage wrought by Formosan rock macaques have so far this year applied for seven times more subsidies than last year to install electric fences, the county’s Department of Agriculture said yesterday.
The macaques have affected agriculture around the county, but nowhere more so than in Gukeng Township (古坑), where not one fruit orchard or vegetable patch has been able to escape damage, local farmers said.
As there is no compensation available for losses caused by macaques, the issue has left the nation’s farmers struggling to find a solution.
Photo: Huang Shu-li, Taipei Times
An orange farmer in Gukeng said that even if the fruit is not yet ripe, macaques still wreak havoc on the orchard, knocking oranges to the ground or throwing them away after taking one bite.
Farmers in Shihbi (石壁) had planted a few dozen hectares of Japanese persimmons, but have since been forced to plant other crops due to the constant damage caused by macaques, Caolin Village (草嶺) Warden Chen Ping-tung (陳兵通) said, adding that only a few hectares remain.
Another farmer in a mountainous region said that their entire taro field was dug up by the animals, while others said that their harvests only consist of the macaques’ leftovers.
The government sometimes sends personnel to light firecrackers in the mountainous areas of Gukeng and Douliou (斗六) to drive the animals away, but farmers said that the macaques are too smart — they just leave before they set them off and return immediately after.
Electric fences are the best solution at hand, but few farmers have been willing to apply for a subsidy to install them, as they must pay part of the cost themselves and tend to be older, the department said.
Last year only four applications were submitted, but this year the number has increased to 28, as the situation has worsened and the department held an information session to explain the process, it said.
The majority of applications came from Gukeng at 21, followed by Linnei Township (林內) with six and Douliou with one, the department said, adding that most of the applicants are tangerine or orange farmers.
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