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CRARF
Project:
Development
of Ecologically-Based Rodent Management for the SADC Region (ECORAT)
Project
Manager :University of Greenwich (NRI)
Contact: Dr Steven Belmain +44
1634 883761 S.R.Belmain@gre.ac.uk,
SRBelmain@aol.com
Project
Partners
1. Plant
Protection Research Institute, Agric Research Council - RSA
2. Durban Natural Science Museum (DNSM) -
RSA
3. National Museum of Namibia
4.
Sokoine
University of Agriculture (SUA) - Tanzania
5. University of Swaziland (UNISWA)
Project Location :
Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, United Kingdom.
Grant
Amount €620,883
Project
Start Date 1 January 2007
Overall Objectives
- To
reduce the high level of rural poverty in southern African countries by
making agriculture more competitive and to raise poor farmers’ incomes
by cost beneficially increasing crop yields, reducing storage loss and
preventing the transmission of diseases to people and livestock caused
by rodent pests.
- To
offset the high rate of natural resource degradation particularly small
mammal biodiversity through improving the management and invasion of
commensal rodents and increasing knowledge about rodent-human
interactions and agricultural expansion.
- To
develop effective rural policy options with institutions and farmer
groups to support rodent pest management actions. Policies
will be developed and introduced to ensure the right tools and
knowledge are made available to rural farming communities and to inform
national regulations regarding rodenticides, research provision and
extension staff training.
Specific Objective
- To
strengthen the generation of appropriate, cost-effective and
sustainable technologies for rodent pest management in small-scale
farming for the SADC region.
Major Activities
Work Package (WP) 1: Coordination
& management (Lead – NRI)
Project
inception workshop
Coordination meetings
Activity reporting
Annual progress reports
WP 2: Rodent
ecology (Lead - Sokoine University of Agriculture)
Habitat
utilisation
Population dynamics
Disease potential
Rodent taxonomy
WP3: Rodent
impact management (Lead -
Plant
Protection Research Institute)
Pre-harvest
damage
Post-harvest damage
Knowledge, attitude and practice
survey
Damage to personal property
Public health
Trapping
Environmental management
Rodenticides
Monitoring and
evaluation
WP
4: Rodent – human interactions (Lead - University
of Swaziland)
Radio
telemetry and
spooling
Land use change
WP 5: Capacity
building (Lead - Durban Natural Science Museum)
Work
package
leadership
Staff exchange
Project management
committee
WP 6: Communication
&
dissemination (Lead-
National Museum of Namibia)
International
peer-reviewed publications
Radio programmes and public
awareness
Project website
International conferences
Community uptake
Final Project workshop
Reports &
Publications
Project website: http://www.nri.org/ecorat
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Southern African Development
Community
