Rats eat up nearly 5pc crops in Bangladesh: experts

Experts said rats alone eats up nearly 5 percent food grains and vegetables annually in the country, suggesting mobilization of school children along with others to spearhead a successful anti-rat campaign.

"Rats appear to be a threat to our food security system . . . we can ensure food security spearheading a successful rat killing campaign," Additional Director of Department Agricultural Extension (DAE) Shamsul Wadud said while inaugurating an annual rat killing drive at the DAE's zonal office in Rajshahi.

Eco-friendly rat management can be vital of protecting many beneficial insects together with maintaining a sound environment, he said.

Bio-pest management system should be promoted among the growers widely to protect the beneficial insects from degradation for maintaining a sound environment and that is very important for a sound ecosystem, he added.

Wadud, who joined the function as the chief guest, suggested involving the region's thousands of school children in the rat annihilation campaign.

DAE Deputy Director Mozder Hossain presided over the function.

Wadud urged the field-level officials and staff concerned to motivate all the members of Integrated Crop Management (ICM) and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) as well as school children and others concerned to take part in the drive so that it could be succeeded.

He said coordinated involvement of particular ethnic groups of people who consume rats as food could also be an effective way of making the drive a total success.

According to statistics, the country's annual cereal food production last year was 37.266 million metric tons as the vegetable yield was 3.06 million tons while rats destroyed some 1.5 million tonnes of the total production.

Experts say a pair of rats can give birth to about 3,000 offspring yearly to cause havoc to the crop production.

DAE's zonal deputy director Dr Abdul Motaleb presented the keynote paper at the function.

Regional Director of Seed Certification Agency Shamim Ashraf and Principal Scientific Officer of On Farm Research Division Sayedul Islam also spoke on the occasion disseminating their expertise on the issue.