Saudi return to ‘scarecrow’ for farm protection

Farmers in southwest Saudi Arabia are gradually restoring the old scarecrow trick to protect their crop from birds and animals, a local daily said on Wednesday.

Scarecrows, man-like wood dummies erected in the middle of farmlands, had been almost extinct in Asseer province and other parts of the Gulf kingdom as many farmers either deserted their profession and others started to get their needs from the market following the discovery of oil.

Other farmers replaced their scarecrows with modern pesticides which have proved effective but have resulted in the killing of many birds and animals.

“I decided to use scarecrows again as I found that they are very effective in protecting my crop…they also have the benefit that they don’t kill birds of animals but just scare them off…this means that I will not feel guilty,” Saudi farmer Amer Asseeri told Shams Arabic language newspaper.

Asseeri said some farmers were still using traps to catch sheep, cow and camels so their owners come and pay money for their release.

“I and my sons have started to use scarecrows in all parts of our farms and they have produced very good results although they are an old technique…they only need to be maintained regularly because of the wind,” he said.

Another farmer, Mohsen Mohammed, said he had also started to use scarecrows, clad in human clothes, after abandoning them for a long time.

“I have just fed up with attacks on my farm by monkeys,” the Yemeni farmer in nearby Abha province said. “They usually start their raids at dawn and cause severe damage to the crops…many farmers used to set fire to keep monkeys off their farms but this is considered a dangerous practice.”

Mohammed said he was making more wooden scarecrows to be deployed in all parts of his farmland after they proved useful in “misleading, frightening and keeping animals and birds off the farms.”