Pests Devastate Jambi Harvests: Sumatra, Indonesia
Most folk living in the western world never really worry about pests that much except of course for the odd cockroach or ant that sneaks into the house or even worse, the dreaded termite.
The above vermin are prevalent in Indonesia and in a big way, literally. But you really have to feel sorry for the folk of Jambi in Sumatra. Wild boars and rats have destroyed hundreds of hectares of rice fields and other crops over the last month in the Jambi province regencies of West Tajungjabung and Batanghari. Apparently the animal attacks have caused harvests to fail in a number of the two regencies' agricultural production centres. Imagine those buggas getting into your house!.
Even rats have joined the zoological armada. Rats devastated crops in three districts of Batanghari: Muarobulian, Marosebo Ulu and Pemayung and local residents fear the rat attacks will spread because nothing has been done to drive the rodents away. It seems the areas affected were prone to rat attacks because of large amounts of idle land where rats breed.
Back to the boring Boars. Apparently efforts to protect the crops including the use of nets to trap the wild boars in West Tanjungjabung proved to be ineffective. So, To help curb the attacks, the local authorities had invited the Indonesian Boar Hunting Sport Association to hold hunting events in the regency periodically. Hunts have been conducted there but due to the large number of animals they need to be held more frequently.
So, if you are planning a sojourn to Sumatra some time down the track then pack that Elephant gun - it might come in handy!