SONAR as Land-Hole Mapping Device for

Rice-Field Rat Control

Quizon, Bianca C.
College of Engineering, Bulacan State University
Malolos, Bulacan
bncaquizon@gmail.com

Abstract​ - Rice is a staple food for most Filipinos across the country. The Philippines is the world’s eighth-largest
rice producer. Its arable land totals 5.4 million hectares (Ricepedia, n.d.). One of the problems of rice production are
the rats which pester fields. This paper focuses on using sonar as a mapping device to locate rat-burrow. A sonar is
placed in the field covering a radius of 0.5ha. Sonar pulses are sent into the ground, echoes come back from the
layers of soil and rock and tell the receiving device when there’s an underground hole. Hole is identified when sonar
pulse doesn’t reflect to the receiving device. Total of 3 sonars is placed in different rice-fields prone to rats, which
are used once a month. During the first month, two sonars have recorded land-holes. One sonar has shown 2
land-holes connected leading to the burrow. The other sonar detected 3 holes; 2 of this are linked that shows the
pathway to rat burrow. After 6 months of extensive experiment, the cases of rat manifestation have reduced, with a
total of 12 rat burrows mapped. For further study, the proposed project should be tested using greater number of
sonar to widen the area of experimentation.

Review of Related Literature

Rice-Field Rats in the Philippines

According to Leonardo Marquez from Crop Protection Division of PhilRice, one of the biggest factors preventing
the rice sector from reaching its full potential is rat infestation. Rice rats have been known to wipe out an entire crop,
although the average crop damage attributed to rats is about 8 percent. Getting rid of the rat problem will thus
immediately bring up rice output. (Rats in Philippine Rice, n.d.)
Marquez said that the only enemy in the rice fields that is intelligent is the rice rat. Just when people thought
they had devised strategies to kill rats, the rats would formulate counter-strategies. Take rat poison, for example.
Rats that take the poison but somehow survive will never eat that poison again. Rats learn from experience,
something other pests like the green leaf hopper cannot do. (Rats in Philippine Rice, n.d.)
The rice field rat ​(Rattus argentiventer)​, is not a native rodent of the Philippines. But, it is locally abundant and
widely spread all over the country. Rice field rats are considered an "invasive species" because they eat and destroy
the rice plants on the local fields. I also damages other crops and plantations and the rats increase really fast in
numbers (Rice Field Rat, n.d.).

Yield Loss caused by Rat Infestation

In the Philippines, yearly yield loss ranges from 5 - 60%. This have brought incalculable miseries in terms of
food shortages and loss of livelihood among the farmers (Field Rats Management, n.d.). The 8 percent yield loss
from rat infestation has been constant for decades. This is because traditional solutions have not changed. Reactive
action is taken when rats are already causing severe damage. “Kill rat” campaigns are then launched to eliminate the
rats. Some municipalities give rewards to the farmers who kill the most rats, while others give P1 for each rat tail
submitted. Unless this reactive mode is changed and systematic preventive action taken, rats will continue to bedevil
our rice fields. (Rats in Philippine Rice, n.d.)
 On January 8, 2011, severe rat and rice blast infestation hit 13 of the 24 villages in Kabacan town, North
Cotabato, damaging close to P12 million worth of crops there. Kabacan is considered as one of Central Mindanao’s
major rice and corn-producing areas. Tessie Nidoy, the town’s agricultural technologist, disclosed that this was the
first time that the town experienced this kind of infestation. The problem was noted after the farmers shifted to a
different variety of seeds — RC 158, a high yielding rice variety recommended by the Philippine Rice or PhilRice.
Nidoy theorizes that the new variety of rice has soft and sweet stalks might have triggered rat and fungus to attacks
the on the plants, especially in the vegetative stages. (Magbanua, 2011)

Sonar and Ground -Penetrating Radar Technology for Rat Hole Detection

Sonar is simply making use of an echo. When an animal or machine makes a noise, it sends sound waves
into the environment around it. Those waves bounce off nearby objects, and some of them reflect back to the object
that made the noise. It's those reflected sound waves that you hear when your voice echoes back to you from a
canyon. Whales and specialized machines can use reflected waves to locate distant objects and sense their shape and
movement. (Science Wire, n.d.)
Sinkhole is defined as a depression in the ground that has no natural external surface drainage. This means
that when it rains, all of the water stays inside the sinkhole and typically drains into the subsurface. (What is a
sinkhole?, n.d.)
The working principle of this project is to use sonars or ground-penetrating radars to locate the suspected
rodent holes in the field. The device will send microwaves to the ground and detects for any change in the speed of
waves to identify the location and to map the rat holes.

References:

MAGBANUA, W. (2011, January 18). Severe rat infestation damages P12M worth of crops in North Cotabato.
Retrieved June 12, 2018, from
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/regions/210848/severe-rat-infestation-damages-p12m-worth-of-crops-in-no
rth-cotabato/story/

Rats in Philippine Rice. (n.d.). Retrieved June 12, 2018, from

https://www.google.com.ph/amp/s/iapps2010.me/2013/09/19/rats-in-philippine-rice/amp/

Rice Field Rat. (n.d.). Retrieved June 12, 2018, from http://ecop.pbworks.com/w/page/18520815/Rice Field Rat

Science Wire: How Does Sonar Work? Whales and Sonar. (n.d.). Retrieved June 12, 2018, from
https://www.exploratorium.edu/theworld/sonar/sonar.html

What is a sinkhole? (n.d.). Retrieved June 12, 2018, from

https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-a-sinkhole?qt-news_science_products=0