KORONADAL City – The Department of Agriculture (DA) in Region 12 dispatched its technical personnel to Sultan Kudarat province on Thursday to help address the worsening rodent or rat infestation in the area. Amalia Jayag-Datukan, DA-12 executive director, said she has directed technicians from the agency’s Regional Crop Protection Center to conduct assessments and set initial remedial measures to contain the rat infestation in Isulan and Bagumbayan towns in Sultan Kudarat. Officials in Sultan Kudarat reported that vast areas of palay farms have been devastated due to the worsening rat infestation in the last several weeks. Isulan mayor Diosdado Pallasigue said earlier this week the infestation already affected hundreds of hectares of farmlands in their municipality and in several villages in the neighboring Bagumbayan. He said they are still assessing the damage caused by the infestation but noted that it was quite significant based on the initial reports. “There are areas wherein our farmers only harvested a sack of palay per hectare because of the infestation,” he said. pna