Malaysian campaign encourages pest hunting over use of pesticide

Embun Majid, The Star 5 May 10;

RAT hunting will be promoted among farmers to control the rodent population in 96,958ha of padi fields under the purview of the Muda Agriculture Development Authority (Mada) in Kedah and Perlis.

Mada Padi Industry Department director Fouzi Ali said the hunting would reduce the number of rats which he said were harmful to padi from the day the seedlings were sown.

He said Mada had been promoting rat hunting since 2008 through seminars and talks to padi farmers but only some of them were using the method.

“We promoted rat hunting because we want farmers not to use pesticide containing zinc phosphate, which is harmful to humans and the environment, to kill the rodent,” he said in an interview yesterday.

He said the agency had been holding rat hunting competitions since last month at four locations — Pangau Padi Estate in Mada Area l in Perlis, Jerlun Tengah Padi Estate in Mada Area ll and Sungai Limau in Mada Area lV with the latest one held on Monday at Sri Pudak Padi Estate, Titi Haji Idris in Mada Area lll.

“We caught 37 field rats during the competition held for about one hour and 30 minutes at the four locations.

“We gave hampers of goodies to those who caught the highest number of rats at the four locations,” he said.

For those who still prefer to use pesticides to kill the rodents, Fouzi said Mada was providing subsidy to farmers to buy pesticides that contain broadifaccoum, chlorophacinone and warfarin.

He said these substances were not harmful to humans and barn owls that were also being used as a biological method to control the rat population.