As part of a nationwide campaign to stop grain being devoured by rodents; Bangladeshi farmer, wins $250 and named national hero for killing 161,220 rats in one year. Mirbohor hired mostly women volunteers to kill the rats in paddy and wheat fields then submitted the tails of the dead animals to the regional agriculture office to count them. Rodents destroy 1.5 million to two million tonnes of food in Bangladesh annually, the Ministry of Agriculture estimates. Mr. Mirbohor says “I’ve been killing rats since 1996. I love killing them. They are the enemy of the country and people. They devour grains, ground nuts and spread diseases” Farmers in the predominantly agricultural nation have killed nearly 13 million rodents in the last 12 months, saving $25 million of food.
