“Last night we had a very big fight with an elephant in our tomato field,” said Joeman Moyo, a farmer at Den Staat farm in South Africa’s Limpopo region. “We used a torch … to make a fire. The elephant would go away but return when I put out the torch. I also burned a tire, but this did not scare it away for long. It kept coming back when the fire died down.” Moyo, who looks after a 5-hectare (12.4-acre) plot, described an experience reflecting the challenges facing Den Staat’s smallholder farmers, as elephants enter their fields at night and threaten crops that provide an income. Farmers use several creative methods to deter the animals, including beating metal tins, hanging empty white plastic containers on wires and lighting fires. The history of this land is important background for understanding the situation today. Den Staat is land reclaimed by a community whose members and ancestors were affected by forced removals under apartheid. The farm was returned to the Machete community in 2010, and it is now held collectively through a Community Property Association (CPA). (Left) Joeman Moyo showing one of the areas where an elephant destroyed his tomatoes the previous night. (Right) Moyo, where he burned tires the previous night to scare away elephants. Images by Bernard Chiguvare. Today, more than 160 people live on the farm where they often face encounters with elephants, which residents say are their biggest concern because they are the most destructive. However, elephants are…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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