Tree rats have robbed farmers in Lakshmipur of their sleep. The rats are raiding Aman fields and cutting down unripe paddy plants, which then die and turn yellow. Farmers fear production will suffer.

Farmers say the rat infestation has become severe this season, and neither poison bait nor natural methods are giving them relief.

The district agriculture department said Aman has been grown on 83,050 hectares this season in Sadar, Raipur, Ramganj, Kamalnagar and Ramgati upazilas. Tree rats are attacking some fields in Raipur, Kamalnagar and Ramgati, with the infestation worst in Raipur. The animals swim in through rivers and canals, and because they nest in orchards and fields they are hard to wipe out. Last season 4-5 per cent of total Aman production was damaged by rats.

Akter Hossain, sub-assistant agriculture officer for South Char Bangshi union in Raipur, said rats the size of cats and rabbits are raiding every field, and 70 per cent of farmers are suffering. Farmers are advised to use medicine when disease appears, but there is no remedy for this.

Farmers in Bhabaniganj in Sadar, Char Kachia and Char Bangshi in Raipur, and Char Lorench in Kamalnagar said large rats are cutting paddy plants in almost every field. They raid at night and look like cats. Locally they are known as "gaichha-kot" rats.

Nur Mohammad, a farmer from Char Ubhuti village in Bhabaniganj, said rats had ruined the paddy on about four decimals of his 64 decimals of land.

Rahman Mijhi, a farmer from Char Kalkini, said: "Cat-sized kot rats have started attacking all the land along the river. To drive them away we burn old tyres beside the fields at night, set off firecrackers and use poison bait. But nothing works."

Bijoy Krishnadas, a farmer from Char Badam in Ramgati, said four decimals of his 50-decimal paddy field had been destroyed by the cat-sized rats.

Ismail Hossain, a member of Char Lorench union parishad in Kamalnagar upazila, said: "I have grown Aman on four and a half acres. Now there is a widespread rat attack in the field. Even before the paddy came into flower, rats completely cut down the paddy on at least 10 decimals."

Dr Mohiuddin Chowdhury, former chief scientific officer for the Noakhali region of the Bangladesh Agricultural Training Institute, said this particular kind of tree rat can swim and is very bold. Each weighs 600-700 grams. Unless their source is found, farmers' losses will grow.

He added that owls, snakes, monitor lizards, mongooses, jackals and other animals once roamed the fields and ate rats. These animals are needed to keep the environment in balance and control rats, but they are now disappearing.

Dr Zakir Hossain, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Lakshmipur, said: "We are getting reports of tree rats attacking paddy fields in various places. Agriculture officers are working in the field to control the rats, holding awareness meetings and distributing leaflets."

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