Due to the failure of the flood season, in the 2023-2024 Winter-Spring crop, farmers in all rice production areas in Binh Dinh province are "crying out to heaven" because of the rat infestation, which is destroying rice fields. The "army" of rats is often active at night, and the rate of destruction of rice is very fast, leaving rice farmers unable to react in time.
Throughout the fields of Binh Dinh, farmers are crying out to heaven because of the "rat enemy". Many people have come up with "a thousand and one plans" to repel the "army" of rats, from setting traps, planting flags, making scarecrows to guard the fields, covering them with fishing nets, beating bait, and some people even sprinkle salt, pour oil, buy instant noodles and rice to keep the rats from destroying the rice... very miserable.
Upset by mice
In recent days, in all the fields of Hoai Chau Bac commune, rice farmers everywhere have been complaining and "denouncing" the destruction of rice by rats. Everywhere, people have used all kinds of strategies to repel the "army" of rats, from setting traps, using poison, pouring oil, sprinkling chili powder, planting flags all over the fields, making scarecrows to guard the fields, covering them with fishing nets... but the "army" of rats is still numerous and brazen.
The Quy Thuan village fields (Hoai Chau Bac commune) cover hundreds of hectares, and farmers are also working hard to come up with various strategies to prevent and fight rats. When asked, Ms. Le Thi Toan (54 years old, also in Quy Thuan village) said bitterly: "There has never been a year when we farmers are as afraid of rats as this year. The number of rats has flooded in from everywhere, people everywhere are crying out to heaven, every morning the fields are buzzing with accusations of rats."
According to Mrs. Toan, every night from 7 to 9 pm, rats are active, swarming into the rice fields to bite and destroy. Mrs. Toan's family has 3 sao of rice in the growing season, but for the past month she has been unable to eat or sleep to come up with plans to fight the rats.
“I bought mousetraps for 5,000 VND each to set traps, then bought fishing nets and tarpaulins to cover the rice fields, but to no avail. In some fields, I had to go to the market to buy chili powder to spread to keep the mice away. It was very expensive and tiring!”
In Mrs. Toan's field, the fields of old farmers Chin Cho and Chin Vam (both in Quy Thuan village) are all suffering because of the "rats". In particular, Mr. Chin Vam has 3 sao of field, but every time he sows rice above the ground, the rats come and destroy it in just a few nights. Up to now, Mr. Vam has sown and re-sown 3 times and has suffered huge losses in both effort and money.
In the afternoon, old farmer Le Minh Vui (67 years old) was still busy fixing the mousetraps that he had set up on his 7 sao of rice fields ( 500m2 /sao). When asked about the "rat enemy", Mr. Vui's face was distorted and he complained: "For the past few months, we farmers have lost our appetite and sleep because of the field mice. This year, the winter-spring crop of mice was so terrible that there was a time when the villagers killed hundreds of them every day but still could not get rid of the mice. Many households with higher rice fields were so damaged by the mice that they had to surrender."
Launching the campaign against rats
Not only in Hoai Chau Bac field, but according to the report of Hoai Nhon Town People's Committee, all fields in 14 communes and wards in this area are affected by the "rat enemy". The local government also mobilized the whole population to fight rats, and paid a reward of 20,000 VND/10 rat tails (rats killed will receive the tails as a reward).
Since the beginning of the season, old farmer Le Minh Vui has killed over 200 rats in his family's 7 hectares of rice. To catch rats, Mr. Vui bought 50 iron traps (VND3,500/piece), which are snap traps and are very effective.
Regarding the reason for the increase in rats, Mr. Vui said that this year there was no flood in Binh Dinh province. “No one wants a flood to destroy people, but without a flood season, farmers are worried because the fields are not cleaned, the seeds of insects and rats are not washed away by the flood, and the alluvium does not return, so the rice crop will be poor or destroyed by rats and insects,” Mr. Vui said.
Mr. Tran Dinh Ty, Chairman of the People's Committee of Hoai Chau Bac Commune, said that to prevent rats from damaging rice fields right from the beginning of the crop, the locality has proactively launched plans to exterminate rats. The commune has allocated 80 million VND to support people in buying medicine and traps to exterminate rats. In addition, the commune has also launched a movement for all farmers to exterminate rats before and during the crop, supporting the purchase of each rat tail for 2,000 VND to encourage and motivate people.
“In the past 2 years, due to the lack of flood season, especially this year there was no heavy rain or flood, so there were many rats. Thanks to understanding the weather and being proactive from the beginning of the season, we have somewhat reduced the damage to the rice crop. We are trying to maintain local forces to support people in protecting their rice fields through the time when the rice is forming panicles,” said Mr. Tran Dinh Ty.
According to the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection of Binh Dinh province, the rat problem has occurred on a large scale in the rice fields of 5 districts and 2 towns, including: Hoai Nhon, An Nhon, Hoai An, Tuy Phuoc, Tay Son, Phu My, Phu Cat. Currently, the rice fields are in the tillering and panicle-forming stage, so localities are making efforts to train and instruct farmers to implement measures to prevent rats and minimize damage.
The rat extermination plan was implemented by Binh Dinh's agricultural sector from the beginning of the season, and 16 training courses were organized for 560 farmers in the area. Localities were supported with 1,540 kg of racmin 0.75TP, gimlet 0.2GB... Measures to prevent rats were put forward by the authorities with 5 types of rat traps and baiting with chemicals in some key locations.
Mr. Ho Dac Chuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Binh Dinh province, further analyzed that the flood season has caused great harm to the Central region for a long time, considered an enemy because of the level of destruction and threat to human life. However, looking at the other side, although it has not been quantified, the flood has the effect of cleaning, washing away and washing away rats, pests and bringing alluvium to rice production areas. In addition, the flood also helps to spread new sources of shrimp, fish and aquatic life to the fields...
NGOC OAI
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