Plague of rats devastates farmland in Tete

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Plague of rats devastates farmland in Tete

12:00 CAT | 21 Jul 2017

O Pais (File photo)

A plague of rats has devastated extensive planting of sesame and bóer beans in Tete’s Mutarara district, leaving small farmer dependent on food aid. The situation is most worrying at the administrative post of Inhangoma, where farmers have lost most of their production.

Mutarara District Economic Activities Services confirms the outbreak and its negative results, and has sent a team of experts to calculate losses.

Producers say they are desperate, because it is not only the sesame and bóer beans that are being destroyed, but also the corn, cassava and sweet potatoes planted for the second growing season.

The Deputy Director of Economic Activities in Mutarara, Adérito Caminyú, says there are no pesticides in the district, but that producers can control the outbreak themselves.

“It’s a rat plague, which can be controlled with traps. You have a trap that’s put in the earth with a few grains of corn and covered with leaves, and when the rat arrives it falls into its grave. Before, you had to put water to get the rat wet, and it stayed there,” Caminyú explains.

The rat plague occurs cyclically, and some farmers try to get rid of the rats with fires that sometimes end up out of control, damaging the fertility of the soil.

Source: Rádio Moçambique