Tens of Hectares of Rice Plants in OKU, South Sumatra Attacked by Rats

A number of farmers in Belambangan Village are harvesting rice in their fields, Monday. (ANTARA/Edo Purmana/22)

BATURAJA - Tens of hectares of rice crops in Belambangan and Gunung Kuripan Villages, Pengandonan District, Ogan Komering Ulu (OKU) Regency, South Sumatra were attacked by rats and farmers almost failed to harvest.

According to Zainal, one of the farmers in Belambangan Village, OKU Regency, about 80 hectares of rice fields in the two villages were ready for harvest but were suddenly attacked by rats.

As a result, rice production produced by farmers this year fell drastically to 50 percent because a lot of rice contents were eaten by rats.

"Luckily, this pest attack was detected quickly, so we accelerated the harvest so that we could still enjoy the harvest, even though it was not optimal", he said as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, October 10.

The head of Gunung Kuripan Village, Zairul Amini, said that due to the rat pest, farmers in the village almost experienced crop failure.

Not wanting a similar incident to happen again, Zairul said that at the beginning of the planting season next year, he would carry out a mass rat control (gerdal) movement with all farmers in the area.

In the control movement, farmers independently bring rice for bait and then mix it with rodenticides by farmer groups.

In this movement, his party will buy every rat that is caught by farmers for IDR 3,000 per head to be destroyed and buried.

"We hope that with this competition next year, the rice fields owned by farmers in our village are expected to be safe from rat pests", he hoped.

Meanwhile, the Head of the OKU Regency Agriculture Service, Joni Sahiu separately said that his party would immediately deploy a team to the field to determine the pests that attack farmers' crops in the two villages.

"At the same time, we will make efforts to eradicate rat pests so that they do not interfere with farmers' crops during the growing season", he said.