AIZAWL: Kill a rat and earn Rs 2 -- this is the incentive Mizoram government has given to farmers to cope with the rodent population explosion threatening crops. Farmers are being paid Rs two for every rat tail brought in to government offices as proof that the rodent has been killed, a top official of the state agriculture department said.

The government has so far purchased over 12 lakh rat tails from farmers in the "cash-for-rats scheme". The cash incentive was devised by the state government to deal with the rapid increase in the rat population caused by a rare flowering of wild bamboo plants in the state.

The rat feast on the bamboo flowers, which bloom intermittently for a few years and then not again for another 48. When the flowers die down the rats depend on other crops for food.

Though the government intended to purchase the tails up to December 15, the deadline may be extended, he said. Rat tails, already purchased, have been publicly burnt in the district headquarters, he said.

"The existing armies of rats are expected to survive till December and soon die as they will be left with nothing to eat," predicted plant protection expert James Lalsiamliana, quoting examples of the last famine caused by bamboo flowering (mautam in local parlance) in 1958-59.

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