Hello Hive

Aside seeking for a good weather, fertile soil and maximum amount of rainfall for rice to produce well it is yet another stress to keep away rodents, birds and all the other domestic animals that destroys our grains in the field .

Scarecrows have been made available to keep away birds, rotation visitation is also in place by community farmers, nevertheless we have others who have installed a line up of polythene bags along ropes in the field that vibrates at the sound of the wind to keep away birds

Yesterday I made a routine check in the farms for rodents. Rats and grasscutters (Cane rats) are the species commonly found here. The cut rice stems down and eat the grains causing mass destructions.

The first precautions to observe is to keep away grasses from within the rice in this way every build rat nest will be noticeable and removed

Having grasses, short shrubs and tress around the rice farm like this one is the easiest way to invite rats and rodents. This rice field above is totally surrounded by bushes and finding rodents feasting on the drying rice is inevitable.

Once rice 🌾 grains have matured passed the soft grain stage where the grains are fluid like, birds often do not feed on them anymore , they prefer the soft grains. Hence after watching out for birds are the grains are drying up like this one, we take up another duty to watch out for rodents.

Setting rodent trap 🪤 isn't feasible since humans can get caught up in it too. Often times we forget the location in which we have set the traps until we get caught in it.
Occasionally we move around the field and check through the rice for rodent hideout.
These are some of the things we often watch out for if we desire maximum output for our rice cultivation.