Ecologically based rodent management in Africa: potential and challenges
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Date
2011
Authors
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Publisher
CSIRO
Abstract
Rodent management in agriculture remains a major challenge in developing countries where resource-poor
farmers are ill equipped to deal with pest species. It is compounded by unpredictable outbreaks, late control actions, lack of/or
inadequate expert interventions, expensive rodenticides and other factors. Ecologically based rodent management (EBRM) is
recommended as the way forward for rodent management in Africa. EBRM relies on understanding the ecology of pest
species and formulating this knowledge into management programs. The present paper evaluates the potential for
establishing EBRM in Africa and the challenges that have to be overcome to implement it. The major constraints for
establishing EBRM in Africa include the absence of key studies on the taxonomy and ecology of rodents, inadequate research
on EBRM, lack of knowledge by farmers on available technologies and agricultural policies that are unfavourable. The
development of EBRM and its success in Asia is a strong encouragement to African scientists to develop similar management
strategies for the most important pest species such as the multimammate rats, Mastomys natalensis. EBRM initiatives such as
the Development of Ecologically Based Rodent Management for the Southern Africa Region (ECORAT) project undertook
studies on e.g. rodent ecology, taxonomy, knowledge, attitude and practices and rodent–human interactions in rural
agricultural communities. Through this project, EBRM interventions were introduced in Tanzania, Swaziland and Namibia
to provide solutions to local rodent-pest problems. Intervention actions including community-based intensive trapping of
rodents, habitat manipulation and sanitary measures demonstrated that the impacts of rodents on communities could be
drastically reduced. EBRM programs in Africa must address how to change attitudes of target communities, building
scientific capacity, implanting rodent-management skills by translating the developed technologies and strategies into simple
understandable and easy-to-implement actions and influencing policy makers to accept the concepts and practices to be
introduced. Further, we need to demonstrate that EBRM is economically feasible and sustainable and that through
community participation, EBRM will become deeply rooted in those communities.
Description
Journal Article
Keywords
Rodent control-Africa, Integrated pest management-Africa, Ecological management-Africa, Rodents, Environmental aspects-Africa