By Francis Ndungu

John Wamae tried everything to stop birds from destroying his pawpaw fruits. For years, they stripped his half-acre orchard bare. But when he finally gave his fruits net coats, his harvest jumped by 50 per cent.

John, who lost his job as a truck driver during the 2020 Covid pandemic, turned to farming to survive. He planted pawpaw, hoping for good returns. But he soon learned that birds were the toughest pest of all.

“Birds are the major pest in pawpaw farming. They invade in large flocks and cause heavy losses every season,” he said.

At first, the attacks were so bad that John considered giving up.

“I had pawpaw plants on my half acre of land but I harvested nothing. Sometimes I even felt like uprooting them because they just occupied space for nothing and I felt like planting other crops instead,” he said.

He also grew maize, avocado, and mango, which did well. But pawpaw remained a constant frustration.

“I also did maize farming, avocado and mango which in return gave good profit. But the challenge was pawpaw, which had the potential of even giving more profit as per the market demand but gave nothing due to birds’ attack,” he said.

John tried to outsmart the birds season after season, but nothing worked.

“Every season I expected to harvest after a lot of preparation of my pawpaw by regular spraying with foliar fertilizers rich in boron, zinc and calcium to prevent fruits and flowering abortion. But when the fruits reached ripening stage, birds brought them all down. All I harvested was losses,” he said.

The slightest damage from bird beaks ruined the fruit.

“The big problem with pawpaw is when it gets tampered with by birds. Slight injuries on the surface after ripening start rotting and producing molds, which cause awful smell and reduce the quality of the fruit to zero,” he said.

Sometimes he fed the damaged fruits to his livestock.

“I never fully gave up because the destroyed fruits were benefits to my cattle, which liked them a lot, especially my goats. Though not good for the milking cow as it caused tarnishing of the milk which lowered its quality,” he said.

And sometimes, he salvaged a few fruits that were hidden in bushy plants.

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“Despite the birds’ attack sometimes I was lucky to find some fruits untouched and utilized them in my house with my family. This happened on the bushy pawpaw plants where the fruits were not exposed and birds probably did not see them. This idea of the birds sparing the bushy plants hinted me to cover my fruits with grasses soon after fruiting towards ripening stage,” he said.

That experiment created more problems than it solved.

“I started by slashing grasses and drying them. Soon after fruiting of my plants, I covered each around the fruits,” he said.

But instead of keeping birds away, the grasses brought pests and disease.

“Soon after I implemented the method, I realized that birds increased in my orchards where they even had the guts of making nests on the covered fruits. Though that time round they never destroyed my fruits, the most frustrating thing was that mealy bugs found their favorite home inside the grasses on the fruits and stems of the plants,” he said.

The rotting grass made the situation worse.

“When it rained the grass hosted a lot of moisture, which facilitated the rotting of the grass and in return orchestrated the rotting of my fruits. Mealy bugs also preferred the rotting and decomposing environment, which created a black soot-like layer on my fruits and on my entire plants. I almost lost my plants,” he said.

He had to clear everything.

“Due to lack of sunlight my fruits turned yellowish and developed black spots which started rotting and falling prematurely. Birds did not feed on them but again I did not harvest anything. I removed all the grasses and the affected fruits and sprayed pesticides against mealy bugs to curb them as they are the most dangerous pests in pawpaw plants,” he said.

Even other tricks failed.

“I was advised by my friend to prune all the trees neighboring my orchards where birds settled but again that did not prevent the birds from attacking my pawpaw. I also tried to put strings from radio cassette tape which produced whistling sounds but scared the birds for the first two days. They got used to it and continued with their normal business of attacking my fruits,” he said.

After years of trial and error, John found his breakthrough when he visited a friend.

“Indeed, the method I learned was very simple, required less skill, less labor and less cost and was effective. My trees finally started bearing fruits soon after implementing it on my orchard,” he said.

That method was covering each fruit with a piece of shade net. The results were instant.

“I was very happy because when harvesting season came, I was able to harvest 3 tonnes and sold them in the market at Sh200 per kilo. My abrupt production increase from almost zero to 3 tonnes per harvesting season made me extremely happy,” he said.

The nets protected the fruits from birds and from the sun.

“The nets not only protected my fruits from birds but also protected them from sun burn, which caused dark lesions on the fruit surfaces and lowered their quality in the market,” he said.

John cuts nets to size depending on the fruit.

“I bought shade nets and started cutting them depending on the fruit sizes and the area of the plants occupied by the fruits, making sure the fruits were fully covered properly. This happened when the fruits were almost ripening. I realized when I erected the nets early, they overstayed and, in some plants, I noticed mealy bugs had started popping out. Thus the need to put them toward ripening stage when they could not spend much time on the plants,” he said.

The nets were easy to reuse.

“The nets were good because they allowed air and sunlight to penetrate through. Individual pieces of net were removed and recycled after harvesting to prevent mealy bugs and allow for management practices to be done on the plants. Nets were put around the fruits carefully, giving the fruit an allowance of developing and elongating,” he said.

Now, birds no longer worry him.

“My orchard is full of birds but now I am not afraid because I know there is no way they can access my fruits. The net aerators are very small, not to allow the beak of the bird to penetrate inside my fruit,” he said.

John now dreams of scaling up.

“I am intending to fence my pawpaw field with nets to avoid erecting nets on fruits after every season, which will reduce the cost of production and improve on security of my fruits,” he said.

It will be costly, but he sees long-term gains.

“Fencing using nets up and sides is more expensive but it’s the best way as it improves security and also reduces evaporation rate. On top of that the method is durable,” he said.