Primates creating headaches for pineapple farmer in Orange Hill

For the first time in the six years he has been farming, Devon Slater of Orange Hill, St James is faced with a monkey problem.

The green, furry primates have been raiding his small pineapple farm causing him significant financial losses.

Slater, 64, tells Barbados TODAY the attacks only started last week and three to four fruits are either eaten, bitten or destroyed daily. Although the losses are discouraging, he says he is implementing strategies to fight back against the monkeys.

Slater has been growing thousands of pineapples at the edge of a gully near his home for all these years and never experienced a monkey attack, given that the primates usually live in forested areas. But the increasingly warm climate could be affecting the traditional food supply of the monkeys and scouting around for a new food source could have led to the discovery of his farm, he suggests.

“They come in the morning between 7 and 7:30 and they come in a group of 20 or more. Some hang around in the top of the trees and others stay down bottom. The ones down bottom come and start to eat and the ones at the top that you don’t see, then come and join them,” he says.

“Times are drier now and they can’t find anything to eat. So they are hunting everywhere. Once they found out how these fruits taste, they grab them at all times; they are not going to give up and I am going to have a serious problem with them.”

Calvin Ifill, an expert hunter registered with the Ministry of Agriculture, tells Barbados TODAY he is aware of Slater’s plight. He agrees that the weather situation is a factor, but gave further insight into the cause of the farmer’s monkey problems.

“Monkeys throughout the island behave differently. The monkeys in his area are probably now acquiring the taste of pineapples. There are monkeys that even pull chives. They eat the bottom and throw away the blade and then there is another set that eats the blade and throws away the ball,” Ifill says.

“He was fortunate for all the years he was farming. I believe there are mango trees in his area that the monkeys were going after. What happened is that the monkeys saw the pineapples and picked them and realised it was a fruit. It will be a new fruit for them and there are plenty there in abundance.

“The monkey population has exploded. There are more mouths to feed and you cannot wait on seasonal fruits. Outside is dry too and you have to go scouting,” the hunter adds.

Whatever the reason, Slater is feeling the effects in his pocket.

Explaining his losses, he says: “I lost about 25 fruits so far and this is a big loss. If I am not here or my wife is not here to run them they would eat everything. I run them till me weak. I run them through the bush and fling rocks at them but they hide in the trees peeping, looking to see if I am gone. As I turn my back, they come down.”

In an attempt to keep the pesky animals at bay, he has been covering his produce. He is in the process of building a cage to capture some of them.

“I called the hunter and he came one morning but the monkeys were not around. But I started to build a cage for them. I just need to put on a door and I will see if I can catch one or two of them. To stop the monkeys from eating the pineapples, I cover them with newspaper to hide them. They do not like paper and they will not trouble it,” he says.

Over the years, Slater, a general worker at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill campus, has expanded his operation. He started with a few plants in his yard and now grows three-quarters of an acre of fruit. He has more than 3 000 plants and has set up a security system to surveil his property.

The farmer grows the fruit in buckets or containers, using soil from a nearby factory. The plants like dark and rich soil, he says, adding that with due care the pineapples can grow in less than 12 months.

In his mission to grow Barbadian pineapple, Slater collected scraps from Bridgetown fruit vendors, pruned the crowns and grew them in containers. So far, eight varieties of pineapples have grown on his farm – Cone, Guyanese, Honey Dew, Sugar Sweet, Hawaii, Unknown Red, Red, and One Seed.

The farmer says there’s been an overwhelming response to his venture. Not only does he have a large clientele, but he also teaches scores of people how to grow the delicious fruit.

So many people buy his fruit he cannot sell it in bulk, he adds.

Slater wants to expand his farm again but says acquiring buckets and containers is expensive. He plans to invest in more than 20 containers or buckets in a few months – monkeys notwithstanding.

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb