Vertebrate Pest
Vertebrate Pest Research
Vertebrate pests refer to birds, mammals, or reptiles that cause damage to agricultural crops and other resources. Common examples include mice, rabbits, raccoons, and deer. These pests can negatively impact food production and farming efforts.
Vertebrate pest research conducts both basic and applied research on vertebrate pests mainly rodents and birds infesting major cereals, lowland pulses, and horticultural crops. Secondary information on grain eating bird (Quelea quelea) population, and control methods were collected and quelea roosting and breeding sites have been identified for future prediction of migratory root of quelea in the Central Rift Valley and lowland MARC mandated areas.Besides, rodent pest species infesting major crops both in the field and storage have been identified, documented and their pest status in Ethiopia has been determined. Studies on management (rodenticidal) of field rodents (mole-rates) have been carried out both in the laboratory and field conditions and the results were published.
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Research on vertebrate pests of crops started in 1975 at Holetta Agricultural Research Center of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR). The program ran for fifteen years and terminated in 1990 due to technical and non-technical reasons. During this period the research program mainly focused on distribution, breeding and seasonal movement patterns of the grain eating bird (Quelea quelea) and rodent control research work on survey, collection and identification of rodent species, seasonal fluctuations of major rodent species, and evaluations of some rodenticides. After nearly two decades, the need for strengthening vertebrate research was felt by EIAR and the program was reinitiated as one of the seven research programs of crop protection based at Melkassa Agricultural Research Center in 2016. Over the last three years, vertebrae pest research focused on the grain-eating bird (Quelea quelea) and rodent pests. The study on the grain eating bird focused on identification of breeding and roosting sites. On rodents, survey aimed at identifying rodent species and chemical control trials were conducted.
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Percent respondents on perception of rodents as pests, crop type’s damaged and rodent species in different areas of central Ethiopia, in 2017.
Effect of Ratoxin (Zinc Phosphide 80%) at 4% concentration formulated with wheat and vegetable oil against Arvicanthis abyssinicus.
Mean of Mole-rat hill count in citrus, Mango, and Avocado fields at Melkassa, in 2018.