By Takaloo, Rathidaung: Arakanese peasants living in the remote hilly regions of western Burma's Arakan State are facing food shortages as their crops are being destroyed by masses of rats before they can be harvested.

"We are facing a food crisis because groups of rats had destroyed our paddy farms before the harvest and are still continuing to destroy the remaining crops in our cultivations," said cultivator from Rathidaung Township.

He said that the villagers could not stop the large number of rats that are still continuing to roam and burrow and destroy the remaining crops such as sesame, chili, taro, vegetables, and cotton plants after having decimated the rice paddies.

According to other farmers, Buthidaung and Ponnakyunt Townships, which are connected to Rathidaung by mountain tracts, have also been badly affected by the rats' destruction.

"Most of the villagers in those townships are also facing the threat of famine because the hillside paddy farms and vegetable gardens that are being damaged by the rats are the only source of their livelihood and those cultivations can be done only once a year," a farmer said.

Farmers say that they have sought assistance from the government for clearing out the rats from their cultivation sites, but the authorities have done nothing but sell bottles of rat poison.

"We have pleaded with our nearby agricultural offices to help us stop the rat destruction, but they did not do anything except sell bottles of poison at the price of 800 kyat to us," said one of the farmers.

He added that farmers lost most of their harvests because there were so many rats and the farmers could not afford to buy enough rat poison to kill them all.

The rats also destroyed the hillside paddy fields and cultivations in Paletwa Township in southern Chin State last month when the crops were ready to be harvested.

Last year, many farmers in Chin State faced famine due to the destruction of their cultivations by rats and the lack of assistance from the government.