A food shortage has hit a remote Indian state after an army of rats began devouring rice crops, triggering a famine scare, officials said.
The northeastern state of Mizoram had a devastating famine in 1959 when a rare flourishing of bamboo flowers — a favorite food of the rodents — drove up their numbers.
The phenomenon occurs about every 50 years and has hit the state again.
This year the food shortages have affected about 630,000 people, nearly 70 percent of the 900,000 residents of Mizoram, the state’s Food and Supplies Secretary T.B.C. Rozara said on Friday.
No starvation deaths have been reported so far, he said.
“Rats multiply in abundance whenever the rare bamboo flowering occurs as they feed on these flowers and then go about feasting on standing crops and granaries,” said another state official, L.R. Sailo.
In the past year, farmers in the state harvested only a fifth of the expected rice production of 129,347 tonnes. They reaped enough for just two months’ consumption, Rozara said.
He said Mizoram has sought US$154 million in assistance from the federal government and is considering offers of help from the UN and other international agencies.
“We need 15,000 metric tons of rice a month to prevent hunger in the rat-affected population. This is a huge challenge,” Rozara said.
Federal authorities were rushing to distribute rice to the poor at low prices and state officials were giving free rice to those with no money, Rozara added.
He said some residents were buying rice across the border in Myanmar.
Last year state authorities began a “kill a rat, get cash” program, offering US$0.05 for each rat killed in the state and supplying free rat poison to about 10,000 farmers.
But that did not prevent the latest shortage.
“The situation is grave and we are having sleepless nights. But we hope to deal with the problem,” Rozara said.
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