Crippled by the long predicted El Nino drought, farmers in the Philippines have taken to eating rats due to acute food shortage owing to crop loss.

Reports claim that farmers in the Philippines, who are the first ones to suffer the effects of El Nino, are facing severe food shortage as their rice crops since February have been damaged and have now taken to hunting rats for their flesh.

In the Philippines, the rat’s tail can exchanged for rice, as part of a government programme to eradicate vermin that damage crops. Sometimes they roast them, sometimes cook them as adobo (a popular simmered stew).

Local farmers, armed with bows and arrows, have been spending late nights in the fields to hunt down the vermin.

The Philippines already has started to feel the effects of El Nino, which occurs once in every two to seven years.

Experts are bracing for the worst as a strong El Nino will severely cripple economies heavily dependent on agriculture, particularly countries such as India which are already facing the brunt of bad weather.

A severe drought condition would also send the supply chains of commodities, such as rice, corn and palm oil reeling. In India, many farmers have committed suicide owing to their crop loss.