“Farming Will Humble You”: SA Farmer Reveals Damage Monkeys Caused to Her Cabbages

• Blessing Sadiki shared a video update after monkeys destroyed her first block of cabbages entirely
• Monkeys have diverse diets, leading to varying impacts on crops and local farming communities
• Fellow farmers flooded her comments with advice after her post struck a chord online

Blessing Sadiki, a South African farmer, woke up to a devastating loss after a troop of monkeys tore through her cabbage crop and left almost nothing standing. She shared the update on Facebook on 17 July 2026, showing just how much damage the animals had caused.

In her video, Sadiki walked viewers through the destruction, showing an entire block of cabbages completely wiped out. She had already tried scarecrows, but the monkeys were unbothered. Her next option, shade nets, would offer better protection, but she acknowledged the cost was a real barrier. She said she planned to install them in stages to manage the expense.

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Her caption summed up what many farmers know all too well:

"Farming will humble you. The monkeys won this round and wiped out my cabbages. We tried everything, but farming is about learning, adapting, and trying again. On to the next crop."

What Do Monkeys Really Eat?

Although bananas are often linked to monkeys, wild monkeys rarely eat them naturally. With more than 260 species worldwide, monkeys have varied diets that include fruits, leaves, seeds, nuts, flowers, vegetables and insects. Many are omnivores, while some have specialised eating habits. Proboscis monkeys prefer unripe fruit and dozens of leaf varieties, howler monkeys mainly eat leaves, owl monkeys feed on fruit and hunt insects at night, and capuchin monkeys use tools to crack nuts and catch foods such as shellfish and snakes. Their diets reflect the environments they have adapted to live in.

View the Facebook post below

Farmers Share Their Monkey Woes

Sadiki's post struck a nerve with other farmers who have faced the same battle. Many jumped onto her page with advice drawn from their own painful experiences.

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Sihle Maseko said:

"We had a monkey problem on my mealies. My guys set traps in small cages. They were caught."

Makalang Gift Mphokane suggested:

"Askies, you need dogs."

Thapelo Maphopha wrote:

"Askies. Hope it's insured. If your budget allows, install an electric fence."

More Briefly News Stories on monkeys

• Scientists confirmed a previously unknown monkey species with distinctive orange lips in the Democratic Republic of Congo, marking only the fifth new African monkey species identified in the past 75 years.
• A video of a monkey drinking from a beer bottle raised concerns about tourists feeding wildlife and highlighted the dangers of human behaviour disrupting animals' natural habits.
• Two young monkeys were rescued from an illegal auction in Vryburg after a wildlife volunteer and police intervened, drawing praise for the rescue and renewed calls for tougher penalties against wildlife trafficking.

Source: Briefly News