Rodent horror looms large in the hills

Jhum farmers face poor cultivation prospect for lack of seeds, abundance of rodents
Jhum cultivators in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) areas who were affected by the rodent crisis of 2007 are yet to find their feet back on the ground.
This year because of lack of paddy seeds they have not been able to cultivate their land to full capacity.
To top it all the population of rodents hasn’t gone down either, so there remains the possibility of some loss to their crops.
Locals blame the government of failing them because the government has done precious little for the jhum cultivators since the rodent crisis. They alleged that they had been given more assistance by the government they would have recovered quickly. Today they are still struggling.
In 2007, the flowering of bamboo — which happens once every 40-50 years — caused a huge boom in the rat population in the region leading to not only the total destruction of crops on the fields but also the destruction of food storage. This led to a severe food crisis in the area.
Experts said that after consuming the bamboo fruits rats reproduced at an accelerated rate — some six to eight times in a year. The last time such a crisis occurred here was in 1958.
Two hill districts Rangamati and Banderban were severely affected by the crisis and parts of Khagrachhari was also affected.
The government at the time distributed only 10 kg of rice per household through the union parishad, jhum cultivators said. This support was very inadequate they complained.
Jhum cultivators said the rat population is still high so they expect that their crops will be damaged to some extent again this year.
Sudarshan Chakma, a 45-year-old cultivator said, “Rats took over my land like a flood and ate up everything that I had. My family literally had nothing to eat for a few days.”
Sudarshan, a resident of Uttar Rui Lui of Sajek union under Baghaichhari upazila in Rangamati, said he received only 10 kg of rice from the government as help.
Reports of World Food Programme (WFP) says that majority of the affected households in the area is dependent on jhum cultivation of paddy, sesame, cucumber, cotton, ginger, gourd and maize and 80 to 90 percent of the crops were damaged in 2007.
Nagojiya Chakma, 60, another cultivator from Orachhari village under Belaichhari upazila in Rangamati told this correspondent rats had already started attacking his paddy crop.
“I used to sow 40 kg of paddy seeds and harvest around 1,600 kg of paddy. In 2007, I was able to harvest only 450 kg of paddy. This year I have sown only 20 kg of paddy seed due to lack of seeds,” he said.
Chikanya Tripura, 35, said he used to sow 30 kg of seeds and harvest around 700 kg of paddy. This year he has used as seed only half of that.
In 2007, the WFP provided emergency assistance to around 26,000 households between May to September 2008. Four rounds of food distribution took place consisting of 50 kg rice, four litres of vegetable oil and two kg salt to each household.
The WFP has started a Rodent Crisis Recovery Programme (RCRP) to lift the affected people of the area. Covering around 7,850 households from Jurachhari, Belaichhari and Baghaichhari in Rangamati and Ruma, Thanchi and Alikadam in Bandarban. Under this scheme, WFP will be providing cash for work, cash for training and motivate the locals to mandatory savings.
The European Commission for Humanitarian Aid (Echo) is also handing out a financial aid of US$ 2.6 million for the project to be implemented from April 2009 to January 2010.
One of the beneficiaries of the WFP’s RCRP Shanti Jibon Chakma told The Daily Star that the WFP’s project is giving them some respite from the crisis but they need further assistance to strengthen the food security in the region.
Project Coordinator of RCRP Tania Cass told The Daily Star, “The crisis is still continuing but people are slowly recovering in some areas in the hill districts.”
“The Jhum cultivators used to retain some seeds from a portion of their harvest for the nest year’s cultivation. When the rodent crisis wiped out their storage, they not only faced starvation but also had no means to cultivate their lands the following season,” she said.
When contacted Additional Secretary of the Agriculture Ministry Anwar Faruque told The Daily Star he was not aware of any such seed crisis in the area.
He said, “They (the cultivators) should let the ministry know at once about their crisis through the local representatives and the agriculture office.”
“The government will surely provide them with the required seeds if they approach the ministry, and given that the government has that specific variety of seeds in its storage.”

Courtesy of The Daily Star