Botswana's offer still stands: Germany can have 20,000 elephants.
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A new analysis shows that wild boars and feral pigs cost the US agriculture more than 1.6 billion dollars annually, as reported by the US agricultural magazine Ag Daily. This is based on new data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), making it the most detailed analysis on this topic to date. The figures from the USDA highlight the significant extent of the damage caused by pigs to agricultural losses in just 13 states.
The analysis considered not only crop losses but also predator attacks due to broken fences, destruction of pasture lands, infrastructure damages, as well as the labor and cost involved in control measures, as explained by Ag Daily. The results confirm what many farmers worldwide have long known - that wild boars represent an escalating crisis. Their high reproductive rates allow populations to double within four months, causing devastating damages to farmland, damaging fences, eroding pastures, and even hunting down young animals. They also pose a serious risk for the spread of diseases among animals and humans.
In Texas alone, the costs of agricultural damages by wild boars amounted to over 871 million US dollars in a single year, as reported by the USDA. Aside from direct financial losses, farmers are forced to invest significant time and costs to combat the issue. According to the analysis, farmers in 2021 spent around 474 million US dollars and over 17 million work hours in controlling pig populations, including trapping, shooting, and costly fence installations. The burden of these costs falls heavily on livestock farmers.
In addition, farmers had to alter their planting decisions and replant damaged fields, leading to further losses, delays in harvest, and additional risks. Despite the known extent of the problem now solidified with concrete numbers, the funding for the eradication and control of wild boars is currently lacking. Since an extension of the agricultural law in 2024, this program is no longer eligible for funding.