Nearly 300 hectares of spring rice in Nghe An had their roots bitten off by rats

Rice is in the tillering stage and is bitten by rats close to the base. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thao, Phan Dang Luu hamlet, Nam Thanh commune (Yen Thanh) has nearly 5 sao of rice in the tillering stage, of which 3 sao have been damaged by rats, each plot is about 1 - 3 m2.

These past few days, Mrs. Thao’s family bought biological rat poison and mixed it with rice, baiting the rice fields around the edge, and placing a few handfuls of rice mixed with the poison every 3 meters. In the past week, she has baited the poison twice, but the rats are still biting and destroying, although the number has decreased.

Rats often bite small areas in each field. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Mr. Nguyen Duy Hoan - Vice Chairman of Nam Thanh Commune People's Committee said: The locality has more than 225 hectares of spring rice, most of which have been damaged by rats. For nearly a week now, the Commune People's Committee has announced on the commune's loudspeaker system to instruct farmers to kill rats using safe and environmentally friendly measures. The commune instructs farmers to kill rats mainly by using biological rat poison.

Yen Thanh district currently has hundreds of hectares of rice damaged by rats. In recent days, the district People's Committee has launched a campaign to eradicate rats throughout the district. Accordingly, the district People's Committee assigned local authorities and directors of agricultural service cooperatives in the district to organize people to carry out the campaign to eradicate rats to protect spring rice.

Many people in Quynh Luu district kill rats by using manual traps. Photo: Viet Hung

Currently, spring rice in the districts of Yen Thanh, Dien Chau, Quynh Luu, Hung Nguyen, Nghi Loc... is being damaged by rats. Through inspection and assessment, about 3 thousand hectares of rice have been damaged by rats, with about 300 hectares of damaged rice.

According to Mr. Nguyen Tien Duc - Head of the Provincial Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection, to effectively kill rats, people need to clean up fields, crop residues, and clear bushes to limit the habitat of rats. Organize people to catch and kill rats by manual methods such as digging or using crescent traps, clamp traps, snap traps, etc. The work of killing rats must be regular and community-based. When using rat bait, it must be strictly managed, and dead rats must be collected and destroyed according to regulations.

At this time, spring rice is in the tillering stage, areas damaged by rats will affect rice yield, so farmers need to prune the rice plants to grow evenly.