Albay officials taking steps versus rat infestation in farms

LEGAZPI CITY – Albay Gov. Joey Salceda has ordered the provincial agriculture office to take necessary measures to stop the rat infestation in rice-producing areas in the province.

Salceda said the infestation poses a direct threat to the rice self-sufficiency program of Albay.

“This also threatens our food security investment which paid off last year from being an importer of rice at 2.5 billion a year to a rice-producing province,” Salceda told The STAR in a cell phone interview.

To support the incentive of his father who is the mayor of Polangui town, Salceda said he will add another peso for every rat tail a farmer can present.

The elder Salceda has started giving one peso for every rat tail presented to him.

Salceda also ordered provincial agriculturist Ruben Limos to submit a master plan on how to deal effectively with the rodents which has ravaged some 694.5 hectares of farmlands in the towns of Libon (five barangays), Polangui, all barangays in Ligao City in the province’s third district as well as in the towns of Camalig (six barangays) and Daraga (five barangays) in the second district, and eight barangays in Legazpi City.

Reports from the provincial office said 1,521 farmers have been affected by the rat infestation.

Salceda also ordered the purchase of more rat poison (zinc phosphide) to stave off the threat, although the chemicals have been initially distributed to Legazpi City and the towns of Libon, Polangui and Oas.

Limos said the rats prefer to eat seeds on seedbeds, some of them on the tiltering and booting stages.

Camalig town is not just facing the problem of rat infestation, but also Brontispa on its coconut plantations, said Limos.

In Polangui town, 388 hectares have been affected, including 400 bags of palay and seeds sown.

“Some farmers have already harvested their crops, but they only got 20 cavans of palay due to the rat infestation,” Limos said.

In Oas town, Mayor Greg Ricarte reported that the rats have attacked mostly the seeds as well as newly transplanted palay, while in Ligao City, Mayor Linda Gonzales reported that the rats have fed on hybrid palay.

Libon Mayor Agnes Dycoco said the rat infestation in her town’s ricefields has been severe.

Farmer Doy Zaragoza, 58, told The STAR that the rats had eaten the palay seedlings he had planted for his 2.5-hectare farmland in Oas town.

“I have nothing to do but to replant to recover the losses,” he said.

In the last planting season, Zaragoza said he lost some 20 sacks of palay due to rat infestation, reducing his 200-sack harvest.

“Maybe this is due to the prevailing cold weather,” said Zaragoza, who also works as utility personnel at the Philippine Information Agency regional office here.