Alien rats 'gobbling up Africa's grain'

[dArKeR]

Africa desperately needs food for all its people - yet an estimated one third of all the grain produced by Africans is effectively destroyed by rats that do not even originate on the continent.

Much of Africa is also desperately short of water, yet the water hyacinth - also an introduced species that is considered the world's worst aquatic weed - has become totally out of control in aquatic ecosystems across the continent, costing hundreds of millions of dollars in efforts to deal with the problem and in lost water opportunities.

In India the annual cost of invasive alien species - like rats, water hyacinth and many others - is estimated at a staggering R825-billion each year.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=68&art_id=vn20040126103543518C456171&set_id=1