Asaduzzaman, 45, of Chirirbandar upazila in Dinajpur earns Tk 35,000 to 40,000 a month killing rats with bamboo tube traps. His capital is 50 traps and the fragrant paddy he uses as bait.

He is the son of Fazlul Haque of East Khochna village in No 8 Saitara union, Chirirbandar upazila.

Every day some farmer or other calls him to kill rats. He has been doing the work for seven years, and rat infestations in paddy fields in his area are falling. Farmers' hard-won crops are being saved, and the eco-friendly, effective bamboo tube trap is becoming popular for rat control.

Rats in aman paddy fields are nothing new. Farmers have used many methods over the ages to protect their paddy, including poison bait, polythene markers and iron traps on banana stems. For several years now farmers have turned to a local technology, the bamboo tube trap, with great results. Asaduzzaman has made killing rats with these traps his profession.

Asaduzzaman said his father, Fazlul Haque, learnt to make bamboo tube traps from an Adivasi man to protect the family's paddy land from rats. "We used the traps to kill rats in our own paddy fields. I saw villagers come to our house to borrow traps from my father to set in their own fields. Demand kept growing. Then I learnt to make the traps from my father. At first I rented them out, but people could not use them properly. So I started setting the traps myself for a fee. Back then I charged Tk 30 for each rat caught. Now I charge Tk 50."

He said he sets 40 to 50 traps a day. In the current aman season, 25 to 30 rats are caught each day, and his record is 32. "On Tuesday I set 40 traps. When I lifted them on Wednesday morning, 26 rats had been caught, and I got Tk 1,300. On average I earn Tk 35,000 to 40,000 a month." That income supports his family of six, including the education of his three children.

He said that because of this work some people have called him Adivasi, Santal, methor and even sweeper. But he ignores them and carries on with his wife's help. Demand keeps rising, and he wants to keep doing the work in the national interest until he dies.

"Killing rats has become a passion for me," Asaduzzaman said. "In the past six months I have killed about 3,000 rats."

Yakub Ali of Khochna village in Chirirbandar said that when rats attack a paddy field they can destroy 2 to 5 maunds of paddy on one bigha (48 decimals). Since Asaduzzaman began killing rats, infestations in the area have fallen and paddy on hundreds of bighas is being saved. "He is now the apple of the farmers' eye," he said.

Nirmal Chandra Roy, a farmer in Banupara village, said Asaduzzaman set 20 traps in two of his fields. "He killed 11 rats on my land and I paid him Tk 550. He now makes his living from this work."

Chirirbandar upazila agriculture officer Zohra Sultana said that of all the methods found so far to kill rats in fields, this locally developed bamboo trap is eco-friendly and the most effective. Rats do a lot of damage to crops, and Asaduzzaman is protecting farmers' paddy by killing them. He has been honoured by the upazila for this, and she has informed the district office. As well as earning his living from killing rats, Adivasi people buy the rats from him to meet their need for meat, she said.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.