Impact of spatio-temporal simulations of rat damageon yield of rice (Oryza sativa L.) and implications forrodent pest management
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Date
2014-11
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor & Francis Group
Abstract
Rodents often damage crops throughout the growing season, from germination to harvest, thus making it difficult tounderstand the cumulative effects of rodent damage for crops such as rice that are able to partially compensate for damage.Compensation can make it difficult to understand the impact of variable rodent damage in terms of when the damageoccurs, its severity and thus when, whether and how rodent pests should be controlled. The compensatory responses of riceto simulated rat damage carried out at different growth stages and at different spatial levels of severity showed that higheryield was recorded during the wet season in comparison to the dry season. However, yield loss was observed during allcropping stages for all levels of simulated damage for wet and dry season crops, with significant compensation noted at thetransplanting [14 days after sowing (DAS)] and vegetative (45 DAS) stages. Only damage at the maturity (110 DAS) stageresulted in significant reductions in rice crop yield. Seasonal differences suggest water availability was an important factorthat perhaps enhanced rice production. The ability of rice to compensate for early rodent damage could potentially reducea farmer’s perception of damage. However, failing to control rodents at these earlier crop growth stages could lead toincreased rodent populations at the time of maturity when compensatory effects are limited.
Description
Keywords
yield loss, rodents, crop damage, crop yield
Citation
L.S. Mulungu, P.P. Lagwen, M.E. Mdangi, B.S. Kilonzo & S.R. Belmain (2014) Impact of spatio-temporalsimulations of rat damage on yield of rice (Oryza sativa L.) and implications for rodent pest management, InternationalJournal of Pest Management, 60:4, 269-274