Rodent outbrakes in Sub-Saharan Africa
Loading...
Date
2010
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
International Rice Research Institute
Abstract
The impacts of rodents in both developing and developed countries are legendary.
Myths and dogma about rodents and their outbreaks abound. They are imbedded in
the culture and language of many societies. In many instances, it is the acceptance of
these outbreaks by society that is our greatest challenge as crop protection special-
ists or conservation biologists. The reason these episodic outbreaks become etched
in the socio-cultural psyche from the sparsely populated uplands of Laos to the
considerably more affl uent agricultural lands of Europe is that the impacts are often
staggering—economically, socially, and even politically. There becomes a degree of
acceptance of these impacts—rural people are born with rodents and will die with
them. Their presence and impacts become a part of life; they become accepted and
farmers become fatalistic about the losses they incur. Indeed, farmers in some areas of
the Philippines say they “plant two rows of rice for rats, one for the birds, and seven
for my family.” This need not be the case given the progress of our knowledge on the
factors that cause population outbreaks of rodents. Indeed, it is our responsibility as
scientists to document and make this knowledge widely available, particularly with
more than 1 billion people suffering chronic hunger and rodent pests contributing
signifi cantly to this burden (see Singleton 2003, Meerburg et al 2009). Moreover, in
Asia, the 640 million people suffering from chronic hunger (FAO 2009) mainly rely
on agriculture for their subsistence.
The impetus for this collation of contributions from Asia, Africa, Oceania (Aus-
tralia and New Zealand), Europe, and North America was an international conference
on “Impacts of Rodent Outbreaks on Food Security in Asia” held following an increase
in reports during 2007-09 of population outbreaks of rodents in the rice-cropping
systems of Asia. In Asia and Africa, there are few widely accessible publications on
these outbreaks. Most appear in the gray literature as brief reports in the annals of
provincial or state departments of agriculture. They are doomed to gather dust and be
lost to future generations. If this happens, then the lessons from previous outbreaks are
not learned and therefore the infl uence of myth and dogma often outweighs evidence-
based scientifi c knowledge developed from our successes and failures of management
Rodent outbreaks: an age-old issue with a modern appraisal
1actions undertaken during previous outbreaks. One message, among many, that we
hope to convey to readers is that we have made strong advances in our understand-
ing of the factors that lead to rodent outbreaks (see also Singleton et al 2010). And,
with such knowledge, local people and offi cials should be better placed to reduce the
potentially devastating impacts associated with “fl oods” of rodents in the agricultural,
periurban, and natural landscapes
Description
Keywords
Rodent outbreaks, age-old issue, Modern appraisal, Rodents impacts