Rat patrol in Nueva Ecija, Philippines

In the German folktale Pied Piper of Hamelin, it took one mystical man to play his pipe and lure the town’s thousands of rats into a river to drown. In the town of Zaragoza in Nueva Ecija, Philippines, they don’t have one man to do this job, they have a whole community working to win its battle against rats.

PhilRice rodent specialist Ulysses Duque shows how to use an indigenous rat trap made of juice cans. (Photo by G. Singleton)

A rat information campaign was launched on 3 August 2006 as a project of Brgy. Sta. Lucia Young Development Council and Zaragoza’s local government unit, in partnership with Nueva Ecija’s office of the agriculturist, and the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice). The campaign had a simple, straightforward message: “Boo! Boo! Rat! Palay mo’y ligtas, 24 oras (Your field is safe, 24 hours).” This campaign is one of a number of outreach activities planned for the Philippines in 2006 that are jointly funded by the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC) and PhilRice to showcase new technologies for lowland rice farmers.

A total of 333 people came to the event, composed of guests, students, and farmers. A motorcade started the morning affair, followed by a program featuring a video-showing of rat campaign activities, and a forum among farmers and guest experts, including rodent ecologist and IRRC coordinator, Dr. Grant Singleton. Information and campaign materials were exhibited, such as posters and photos, a miniature diorama of a community trap-barrier system or CTBS (see photo below), and samples of rodent management tools such as flame throwers and rat traps.

A miniature community trap-barrier system (Photo by T. Mendoza)

Zaragoza’s municipal agriculturist Rosenita Gonzales says that rats have long been a yearly problem, especially in January to February. They had been conducting management methods before the campaign started, using flame throwers and chemicals, and going night hunting as well. But it was only in February 2006 when the community started organizing its activities to align with its understanding of the ecology of the rats. This provided a focus on when and where to conduct control. The introduction of the CTBS adds an important reinforcement to the community war against rats.

A 20-hectare CTBS demonstration site was installed in Sitio Mabilog, Brgy. Sta. Lucia Young, with participation by 10 farmers.

“So far, results have been good,” says Ms. Gonzales. “This demonstration site is expected to benefit the whole barangay. Hopefully, the whole of Zaragoza will follow suit once people see that the CTBS, together with targeted community rat campaigns, is working.”
 

Trina Mendoza (t.mendoza@cgiar.org)
 

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