millennium with the same absolute number of poor people in its population as ten years previously. Bangladesh remains one of the poorest and most densely populated countries in the world, with 50 per cent of its population of 150 million living in poverty, and with 85 per cent of the poor living in rural areas. Some 30 million people currently live in extreme poverty as defined in terms of dietary consumption by caloric intake (less than 1,805kcal per day). The extreme poor have generally not benefitted from national economic growth trends and, in fact, inequality increased with the extreme poor increasingly unable to move upwards out of poverty. By performing a project in this region of the world, the number of undernourished people benefiting from its results is maximized. An additional pay-off of effective rodent management is a reduction in rodent-borne diseases that can be catastrophic to the livelihoods of the poorest of the poor. Information that is acquired in this project will also be useful in other parts of Asia, a region that contains about two-thirds of the world’s poor – 1.8 billion people who live on less than $2 a day with 903 million struggling on less than $1.25 a day (United Nations, 2010).
Objectives of the research
This project aims to help Bangladesh to develop strategies for the prevention of post-harvest losses by rodents. The main focus is ensuring that stakeholders throughout the food chain, policy makers and extension specialists are provided with appropriate tools and information to manage post-harvest losses caused by rodents using cost-effective, sustainable and ecologically-based strategies, thus leading to less contamination and loss of stored food. In this way, the project contributes directly to two of the ARF foci: increasing sustainable agricultural production, and ensuring equitable access to better nutrition.
Research questions and methods:
Direct loss to stored grain stocks in Bangladesh has been estimated to be 5 to 15 per cent depending on granary size and proofing level, with much greater percentages of grain contaminated by rodent faeces, hairs and urine. Moreover, rodents form a specific health threat in terms of food safety: their excrements can present viruses that cause haemorrhagic fevers, several enteric bacterial species, helminthic eggs and protozoan cysts. Rodents living on harvested produce in or near human dwellings are also a source for vector-borne infections of humans. Rodenticides in Bangladesh are often used inappropriately and have detrimental effects on non-target species, including humans, and can promote the development of resistance in target species.
In order to understand rodent damage, it is necessary to understand the ecology and behaviour of the involved rodent species. We have to identify the rodent species causing qualitative and quantitative post-harvest losses in household level and small market trader storage facilities and their relative abundance. Currently we have only basic knowledge of inter-annual rodent dynamics and habitat use in Bangladesh. Therefore, we would like to determine rodent breeding and migration capacity across seasons (before, during and after harvest) and characterize post-harvest losses through quantifying rodent loss, damage and contamination rates for different traditional storage structures. Moreover, we like to improve rodent management and control strategies. Currently, there is little regional awareness and availability of ‘new’ technologies such as innovative storage (eg IRRI superbag and grain cocoons), and trap designs that are more sensitive and versatile which increase efficacy and reduce development of avoidance behaviour. New storage technologies should be assessed under field conditions in Bangladesh to develop best practices for rodent management, trapping regimes and rodenticide application.
Our last research question is how we can gain more attention for the emergence of post-harvest losses by rodents. Therefore, we have to ascertain human perceptions and attitudes in Bangladesh towards rodents, postharvest losses, the costs and benefits of their current rodent management methods and improvements trialled in this project. We have to carry out research to develop culturally appropriate communication pathways for knowledge on preventing post-harvest losses caused by rodents, provide research assistance to SMEs to develop their own promotion materials and monitor and analyse impact of publicity campaigns on knowledge uptake and behavioural change. n
Objectives of the research
This project aims to help Bangladesh to develop strategies for the prevention of post-harvest losses by rodents. The main focus is ensuring that stakeholders throughout the food chain, policy makers and extension specialists are provided with appropriate tools and information to manage post-harvest losses caused by rodents using cost-effective, sustainable and ecologically-based strategies, thus leading to less contamination and loss of stored food. In this way, the project contributes directly to two of the ARF foci: increasing sustainable agricultural production, and ensuring equitable access to better nutrition.
Research questions and methods:
Direct loss to stored grain stocks in Bangladesh has been estimated to be 5 to 15 per cent depending on granary size and proofing level, with much greater percentages of grain contaminated by rodent faeces, hairs and urine. Moreover, rodents form a specific health threat in terms of food safety: their excrements can present viruses that cause haemorrhagic fevers, several enteric bacterial species, helminthic eggs and protozoan cysts. Rodents living on harvested produce in or near human dwellings are also a source for vector-borne infections of humans. Rodenticides in Bangladesh are often used inappropriately and have detrimental effects on non-target species, including humans, and can promote the development of resistance in target species.
In order to understand rodent damage, it is necessary to understand the ecology and behaviour of the involved rodent species. We have to identify the rodent species causing qualitative and quantitative post-harvest losses in household level and small market trader storage facilities and their relative abundance. Currently we have only basic knowledge of inter-annual rodent dynamics and habitat use in Bangladesh. Therefore, we would like to determine rodent breeding and migration capacity across seasons (before, during and after harvest) and characterize post-harvest losses through quantifying rodent loss, damage and contamination rates for different traditional storage structures. Moreover, we like to improve rodent management and control strategies. Currently, there is little regional awareness and availability of ‘new’ technologies such as innovative storage (eg IRRI superbag and grain cocoons), and trap designs that are more sensitive and versatile which increase efficacy and reduce development of avoidance behaviour. New storage technologies should be assessed under field conditions in Bangladesh to develop best practices for rodent management, trapping regimes and rodenticide application.
Our last research question is how we can gain more attention for the emergence of post-harvest losses by rodents. Therefore, we have to ascertain human perceptions and attitudes in Bangladesh towards rodents, postharvest losses, the costs and benefits of their current rodent management methods and improvements trialled in this project. We have to carry out research to develop culturally appropriate communication pathways for knowledge on preventing post-harvest losses caused by rodents, provide research assistance to SMEs to develop their own promotion materials and monitor and analyse impact of publicity campaigns on knowledge uptake and behavioural change. n
[(1)Professor Steven Belmain, Professor Steven Belmain, Natural Resources Institute, Greenwich University, UK; (2) Rokeya Begum Shafali, Executive Director, AID-Comilla; (3) Dr Bastiaan Gezelle Meerburg, Head of Department, Livestock and Environment, The Netherlands]
