Golden Apple Snails: A Food Turns Sour
KUCHING - The Golden Apple snails (siput gondang emas) were brought into Sarawak from Kalimantan by a Long Balai resident in Ba Kelalan, in the north of the state, to be bred for food in early 1997.But the food was found to be a pest when it destroyed 239 hectares of padi at Ba Kelalan and Long Semadoh in Lawas district and Bario in Baram district, areas well known for its rice crop.
"That snail poses a serious threat to padi farmers in Sarawak," said an angry William Chang, the state agriculture director.
He is angry because he knows of the thousands of hectares of padi destroyed by the snails in other countries like Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia.
The Golden Apple snails had, since 1986, destroyed 171,000 hectares of padi in Taiwan costing RM320 million and 131,000 hectares in the Philippines where rice production was reported to have dropped by 40 percent.
The snail, a native of South America, had damaged 5,000 hectares of padi land in Sabah and 700 hectares in the penisula at one time.
According the April issue of "Berita Peladang", the Agriculture Department's newsletter, the Golden Apple snail is a hardy creature that can breed rapidly in rivers or any water-logged areas.
The snail, which has a three-year life cycle, can survive in harsh conditions like a long dry spell or drought.
A female snail lays 2,000 to 3,000 eggs a year, in clutches of 400 to 500 eggs that hatch in seven to 14 days.
Five days after hatching, the snails measuring two millimetre in diametre take on a golden hue and will start feeding on young padi plants.
The snails mature in 75 to 90 days, changing its colour to dark brown while the female can start laying eggs when two months' old. This ability to breed within a relatively short span of time, makes the creature a much hated pest.
A bunch of golden gondang snails eggs totalling between 400 to 500 and they can hatch within 7 to 14 days.
Depending on its numbers, these snails are known to munch through a hectare of padi in a night.
An agricultural officer of the state agriculture department who declined to be identified, said the snails would attack the base of the padi plants first, before moving on to the stems and leaves.
A grown-up snail can finish off a padi leave in three to five minutes and they are very active at twilight, night and dawn.
"A padi field that is badly destroyed by the snails is evidenced by the bits and pieces of the rice seedlings floating on the surface of the field," he said.
The state agriculture department has rushed its officers to the ground when the first report of the damage caused by these snails was received in September 1998.
"We view the attack by these snails seriously and for us, even a single Golden Apple snail detected in a padi field is a grave threat because the snails can breed so rapidly," said the officer.
As such, the department has drawn up several measures to make sure that the snails do not cause extensive damage to the rice crop in the state.
Among the measures is spraying the infected areas with a pesticide known as "Tea-seed Cake Powder" and "Bayluscide".
The department also holds dialogue with farmers, print and distribute posters to inform the people of the danger posed by the snails and organise "gotong royong" for the rural folks to seek and destroy the pests.
Other means of destroying the snails are to set up traps in rivers, to plant wood or sticks in the snails to lay their eggs which can then be destroyed.
Breeding ducks or catfish in the field can also control the pests as the snails are food to the ducks and fish.
The department agriculture has doubled up its enforcement of the quarantine regulations to make sure that people do not move or transport these snails from place to place.
Under Section 19 of the Plant Quarantine Act 1976, it is an offence to carry or transfer the Golden Apple snails which are considered a dangerous pest in Sarawak. - Bernama
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