This is one of 280 summaries describing key outputs from the projects run by DFID’s 10-year Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy (RNRRS) programmes.
Summary for Project title: R7372: Development of a methodology for assessing the impact of rodents on rural household food security, health and nutrition.
Rodents have a serious impact on people’s lives. They nest in the roof thatching of rural households, relying on food and human drinking water stored inside the home and causing serious losses to these stores. They also damage crops, personal possessions and buildings, and transmit dreaded diseases such as the bubonic plague. Ecologically based management techniques—including the use of kill traps and multi-capture live traps—have enabled rural communities in Mozambique to reduce rodent numbers significantly. Before the project, rodent pests and their damage went largely unchecked in the project villages. Poisons were not available and traps were usually self-made and unreliable. At least a dozen villages are now intensively trapping rodents and, although the scale of use remains limited, the techniques are spreading through word-of-mouth.
The CD has the following information for this output: Description, Validation, Current Situation, Environmental Impact. Attached PDF (9 pp.) taken from the CD.
