Efficacy of Management and Monitoring Methods to Prevent Post-Harvest Losses Caused by Rodents

Abstract

The presence of pest rodents around food production and storage sites is one of many underlying problems contributing to food contamination and loss, particularly influencing food and nutrition security in low-income countries. By reducing both pre- and post-harvest losses by rodents, millions of food-insecure people would benefit. As there are limited quantitative data on post-harvest rice losses due to rodents, our objectives were to assess stored rice losses in local households from eight rural communities and two rice milling factories in Bangladesh and to monitor the effect of different rodent control strategies to limit potential losses. Four treatments were applied in 2016 and 2017, (i) untreated control, (ii) use of domestic cats, (iii) use of rodenticides, (iv) use of snap-traps. In total, over a two-year period, 210 rodents were captured from inside people’s homes, with Rattus rattus trapped most often (n = 91), followed by Mus musculus (n = 75) and Bandicota bengalensis (n = 26). In the milling stations, 68 rodents were trapped, of which 21 were M. musculus, 19 R. rattus, 17 B. bengalensis, 8 Rattus exulans, and 3 Mus terricolor. In 2016, losses from standardised baskets of rice within households were between 13.6% and 16.7%. In 2017, the losses were lower, ranging from 0.6% to 2.2%. Daily rodent removal by trapping proved to be most effective to diminish stored produce loss. The effectiveness of domestic cats was limited.

Rodent control strategies and Lassa virus: some unexpected effects in Guinea, West Africa

“…In addition to active rodent control, simple interventions (e.g. rodent proofing of houses or storing food in airtight containers) could also reduce rodent densities [ 60 ]. Future studies should investigate whether the suggested approach, involving community participation and year-round control methods, can effectively reduce the risk of LASV transmission risk to humans in a sustainable manner.…”

Tedarik Zinciri Boyunca Sebze Kayıpları ve Atıkları, Geri Dönüşüm İçin Çiftçinin Ödeme İstekliliği: Yeşil Tedarik Zincirine Doğru

“…Some previous studies examined the amount of food loss and reasons behind the food losses focusing on specific product, or product groups (Hazarika, 2006;Gangwar et al, 2007;Hazarika, 2008;Khan et al, 2008;Murthy et al, 2009;Sharma and Singh, 2011;Bahattarai et al, 2013;Abass et al, 2014;John, 2014;Kalidas and Akila, 2014;Arah et al, 2015a;Rehman et al, 2015;Jha et al, 2016;Kirigia et al al., 2017;Bantayehu et al, 2018;Chegere, 2018;Verma et al, 2019). On the other dimension, some researchers focused on the issues of reducing and recycling of food waste (Jeger and Plumbley, 1988;Basavaraja, 2007;Gajanana et al, 2011;Begum et al, 2012;Ku et al, 2013;Kannan et al, 2013;Adepoju, 2014;Kiaya, 2014;Arah et al, 2015b;Kumari and Pankaj, 2015;Kumar and Kalita, 2017;Rahiel et al, 2018;Tadesse et al, 2018;Krijger et al, 2020). Some studies compared the reasons of product losses in developed countries with those of developing countries (Hodge et al, 2011;Prusky, 2011).…”