Kohima (PTI): The villagers in Nagalands Peren and Dimapur districts are gripped by a fear of food scarcity after a large army of rodents invaded the crop fields destroying whatever comes their way.

There has been an abnormal increase in the rodent population in Peren district and the foothills of Dimapur in the last six months, throwing a big challenge to agricultural experts and officials on rodent management.

The affected villagers adopted their own indigenous methods like spraying pesticides to control the rodent population, but they hardly worked as the pests rapidly replicate themselves, agriculture department officials said.

This set the stage for Dr A M K Mohan Rao, noted rodent specialist and a consultant in the Union Agriculture Ministry, to visit the affected villages last week.

Dr Rao, a recipient of FAO (Rome) Award on rodent management, accompanied by state agriculture minister Chumben Murry, held a series of discussion with officials from the departments of forest, agriculture and Nagaland Bamboo Mission.

During the field visits of Dungki, Lamhai, Deukoram, old Jalukie in Peren district, the villagers expressed their fears for shortage of rice even for the coming festive season not to speak of the lean months.

As it was seen that the rodents spared ginger, it was assumed that the herb and some medicinal plants might act as a repellent to the marauding pests. In neighbouring Mizoram, frequently visited by the 'mautam' or bamboo flowering which attract rodents, the ginger weapon has worked.