As you toil to keep and save your produce for the profit-filled Christmas season, think about the thieves who are also planning to grab your produce.
During the festive season, thieves go into overdrive for obvious reasons. One is that they will have an easy market for what they have stolen and of course, stealing is their job.
According to farmers in most livestock keeping areas, at least 10 per cent of their livestock is stolen during this season. These include cows, goats, sheep, and chicken.
It is also in the banana growing areas. This is why you need to prepare early and deal with these thieves.
Experiences show that thieves start striking as early as November. The stolen animals are taken to their farms for further fattening before being sold off as their own in December.
If it is a livestock keeping area, organize yourselves into security groups and start monitoring your animals, especially at night. Some thieves are armed and dangerous, so you must be aware of this.
You can hire armed security guards to patrol the area day and night. Security guards may cost you sh150,000-200,000 per month, however, that is little compared to the millions you may lose if your animals are stolen.
Label your animals and make sure that each farmer in the village knows about the other farmer’s labelling tag. This will help easily identify the animals if they are stolen.
