A rat is a harmful creature. Its disadvantages are more than its advantages. It annoys people by destroying crops and houses. Rats also destroy crops as well as important files and papers in the offices or houses. They spread 60 types of diseases, said Mayor of Khulna City Corporation Talukder Abdul Khaleque while addressing as the chief guest at the launching function of the month-long Rat Elimination Campaign-2019 in the conference room of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in Khulna on Monday.
However, Khulna regional office of the Directorate of Agriculture Extension (DAE) and Sadar upazila office jointly organised the function at the conference room of the DAE’s Additional Director in the city.
Side by side with destroying 10 to 12 percent or even more of cereal and other crops, rats damage boundaries of arable lands, roads, flood control
embankments, irrigation canals and other properties every year in the country.
DD of DAE Pankaj said agriculture activists, farmers, students, teachers and common people participated in the campaign last year killing over 24.30lakh rats saving 18,233 tonnes of various crops in Khulna agriculture region.
“Rats annually destroy huge paddy sufficient for feeding 50-55 lakh people in the country,” he said putting stress on creating social awareness for eliminating rats to save huge crops for attaining sustainable national food security.
At that time, Kazi Abdul Mannan, additional director of DAE of Khulna region, Ward Councellor of Ward no-29, Councellor Fakir Md Saiful Islam and Khulna Agriculture Rehabilatation Committee member Shaymol Singh Roy, additional deputy commissioner(LA) Md Iqbal Hossain, deputy director of DAE Pankaj Kanti Majumder along with others were also present.
Later, KCC Mayor distributed prizes among farmers, sub-assistant agriculture officers and educational institutions of the region for killing maximum number of rats last year.
Earlier, The DAE of Khulna region brought out a rally led by KCC Mayor Talukder Abdul Khaleque and paraded the main streets in the city with chanting different awareness building slogans including ‘Eliminate rats and saving our crops, clothes, documents, residence and money’.
