Country: Ethiopia
The bio-based rodent control product is a research and development 
trajectory of a rodenticide product based on botanicals. It responds to an enormous problem of rodent damage which has been underexposed for decades. While hardly any innovation takes place in chemical rodenticides, their effectiveness is reducing, and they have negative side-effects. This bio-based product aims to provide an effective, safe, long-lasting and environment friendly alternative. It is developed by and for farmers, and produced by local women SMEs in Amhara, Ethiopia. They produce and sell the off-the-shelf bio-rodenticide product locally to farmers, for an affordable price. The entire production chain is local.
We have further successfully organized Ecologically Based Rodent Management Campaigns (EBRM) in Amhara, Ethiopia. In these campaigns communities applied a range of measures to reduce the rat population which resulted in substantial reduction of crop loss and the resurgence of grazing areas. The estimated benefit per farmer was a 10% increase of crop/pasture production, and fractional storage losses.
Funded by The Small Business Innovation Research Programme (SBIR), the Netherlands (2018-2021). The project is led by MetaMeta – the Netherlands and Mekelle University and the Amhara Bureau of Agriculture are the partners from Ethiopia.
Blog series:
Video: Bio-rodenticide
