GAIBANDHA, Oct 12, 2017 (BSS) – A month long rat killing drive-2017 began in the district on Wednesday with a call to protect hardly produced food grains from the rats.
An inaugural ceremony organized by Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) here was also held on the occasion.
Deputy Commissioner (DC) Gautam Chandra Pal addressed the meeting as the chief guest and district livestock officer Dr. Abdul Latif and district fisheries officer Abdud Dayan were present as the special guests.
With DD of DAE AKM Ruhul Amin in the chair, the inaugural function was also addressed, among others, by president of district Krishak League Hasan Mahmud Siddique, general secretary Dipak Kumar Pal, farmer Shamsul Islam and journalist Sarker M. Shahiduzzaman while Sadar upazila agriculture officer M. Sadiqul Islam delivered an address of welcome.
The speakers said rats damage around 15 lakh tonnes of food grains annually affecting production seriously and disrupting the government’s food security efforts.
Terming the rat as the detrimental creature to all food crops and structures including underground electric and telephone cables, they underlined the need for involving more farmers, concerned people and adult children in this regard.
Additional DD of DAE (Plant Protection) M. Matiur Rahman also presented the keynote paper at the function narrating various aspects of rat killing and urged all concerned to extend their cooperation in this connection.
DC Gautam Chandra Pal urged the field-level officials to motivate all the members of Integrated Crop Management and Integrated Pest Management as well as school and college children and others concerned to build social movement on killing rats.
DD of DAE AKM Ruhul Amin in his concluding speeches urged all the DAE officials to take part in rat killing drive spontaneously and sought their whole hearted cooperation to make it a success in the district this year.
Later, DC Gautam Chandra Pal formally inaugurated the rat killing drive in the district by killing a rat and also visited the stalls where different equipments including traps to kill rats were displayed.