Letters: Snakes are not farmers' enemies

Tue, 06/23/2009 12:27 PM  |  Reader's Forum

Rice production is not only Bali's heart and soul, it is critical to the island's food security. It's very disturbing to read that Tabanan, Bali's main rice-growing area, is still facing serious rat problems in the rice fields. Not only is Bali losing at least 1,000 hectares of agricultural land a year to uncontrolled development, but rats, which can rapidly destroy an entire crop, are reducing harvests on the remaining land.

The rat's main natural predator is the snake. Each python in the sawah can consume between 1,700 and 2,000 rats in its lifetime. Cobras have a higher metabolism and are much more efficient, each consuming over 5,000 rats in a 10-year lifespan. Clearly, snakes are a very important part of the sawah ecosystem. However farmers not only kill snakes generally, they are encouraged to catch them for sale to snake meat restaurants in Bali.

Many of today's rice farmers lack the wisdom of their elders, who were fully aware of the balance of nature. They are threatening their food security and in fact breaking their own rice bowls by killing and selling snakes - not just in Bali but in Java as well. Granted that snakes are not popular creatures, but Bali's serpents are shy and one rarely hears of snakebite. Snakes in the rice field are not the farmer's enemies. They may in the end be his best friends.

Catherine
Ubud, Bali

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