Rodent control in East Africa

The East African nations of Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe encompass a widely varied topography, and climate from tropical to temperate. Where soil and rainfall permit, agricultural crops are grown. For the most part, farming is of a subsistence nature being small single family plots, which make up about 90% of the farming in these nations. Large farms in Kenya and Zimbabwe are generally confined to the temperate uplands, and elsewhere there are large government agricultural schemes growing food crops like rice and sugar cane. Almost all of the nations of East Africa have chronic food shortages. The impacts of the most economically important rodent species, including the multimammate mouse, grass rat, Norway rat, roof rat, and house mouse, as well as these species biology, are summarized. A 2-year rodent control program in Somalia, funded by FAO, began in 1981 and is briefly described, as are recent rodent control projects in other East African countries. A positive outcome of these projects is that they have incorporated education for responsible national staff who in turn will train fellow workers. Long-term support for such efforts is needed