About 20 villages in Paletwa township in southern Chin state encountered a serious rat infestation problem causing devastation to their rice-paddies. Without anything left to harvest local farmers are facing desperate times ahead to survive.

A Samee resident said “Rat population increases significantly as bamboo sprouts in the forests near the towns of Paletwa and Samee. These rats have invaded the farming areas of the villages and are eating away at the paddy and other crops leaving nothing left to harvest.”

He continued ,“When buds and fruits start to appear on the rice plants, there is a certain kind of liquid in them. The plants were destroyed by rats at the stage. The situation in the paddy fields and plantations in Samee is pretty bad. There are about 20 villages there that have suffered so much that the farmers can’t harvest rice”, he said.

“ If the rats have infested, it is almost impossible to harvest rice from that field. For example, if a field can produce 50-bushel of rice when the rats destroy it, you will not be able to get even a bushel full”, a farmer from Paletwa explained.

The flowers bloom profusely in a couple of bamboo species locally known as Mathay and Thalaku from September. When such bamboo flowers bloom, rats tend to increase in number and cause havoc in farmlands.

The villages in Paletwa that faced a ruinous situation where there was no harvest left in the fields due to the rampage of rats are : Abaung Tha, Sat Hlay, Sam Sate, Chi Palin, Seint Sin, Long Kadu, In Kho Wa, Sein Lat Wa Hadawa. In addition, the villages located along the Samee-Matupi highway, villages in the lower and upper parts of the Samee creek and villages located between Samee and Paletwa also faced similar situations.

A Samee resident said “ Day after day, the rats infested the villages and destroyed the fields. Our farmers are mainly dependent on rice cultivation. Due to the current situation, farmers from Samee and Paletwa are suffering a lot. In addition, there is also the difficulty of blocked roads in the region.”

Locals are using tactics like lighting fires, setting traps and other traditional methods to make rats run away, but the number of rats is so high, that it is extremely difficult to control them.

Some Christian religious organizations are helping by distributing rice for the people of Paletwa who have nothing left to harvest in their paddy fields due to the destructive rats and facing difficulties in their livelihood.

Similarly, when fruits grew on the bamboo trees in 2008, rats ran rampant in Paletwa, causing extensive damage to rice and other crops, and some locals experienced famine.

The locals said that bamboo trees bear fruits once every 50 years, and rats often come and eat the fruits in large groups. Subsequently the rats invaded the farms and plantations to destroy rice and other crops.