Traditional Rat control in paddy fields in Sirugamani areas as practiced by SEVAI promoted farmers.

Traditional Rat control in paddy fields in Sirugamani areas as practiced by SEVAI promoted farmers. Rice field rats cut transplanted plants and they also chop young seedlings. At ripening stage, they feed on developing rice buds. Rats occur in lowland irrigated rice crops. Both the wet and dry seasons are favorable for rat reproduction and crop damage. The availability of food, water, and shelter are factors, which provide optimum breeding conditions. The presence of grassy weeds also triggers their development. Rice field rats feed at night with high activity at dusk and dawn. At daytime, they are found among vegetation, weeds, or maturing fields. During fallow period, they utilize major channels and village gardens as prime habitats. At tillering, 75% of time they are in burrows along the banks and after maximum tillering, 65% of time they are in rice paddies. Rat feeding causes the damages such as missing germinating seeds, chopped young seedlings, missing plants, irregular

cuttings of stem, chewed developing buds or ripening grains,tillers cut near base at 45° angle,retillering of stems, delayed grain maturity, missing grains, missing panicles. The feeding damage on the stem caused by the rice field rats resembles insect damage although rat damage is usually distinguished by the clean cut at 45° of the tiller. It has become important to catch rats to identify the species and place traps along runways, or dug the rats from their burrows.While the rice producing nations across the globe are spending millions of rupees on controlling the rat menace in paddy fields, Ramasamy of Trichirapalli District of Tamilnadu use traditional traps to catch the rodents. He offers his services to farmers and earn their livelihood. He places about 100 traps in each acre of land for which we get Rs. 250 per night and the farmers feed the team for the day and he carrries spare clothes and take bath in the fields itself. He places the traps strategically after identifying the areas where rats move frequently. Despite the availability of modern techniques to control rodents, Ramasamy is still popular among the paddy farmers in controlling rats in a Eco friendly manner.-Govin