DHAKA – A Bangladeshi farmer who killed more than 80,000 rodents won a colour television on Wednesday as he was crowned the country's champion rat killer of 2009, officials said.

Mokhairul Islam disposed of 83,450 rats from January to September, more than double the tally of last year's winner, the director of Bangladesh's agriculture department, Abdul Hannan, told AFP.

"Islam deposited the dead rodents' tails at the district agriculture office," Hannan explained.

Accepting his prize of a 14-inch (35-centimetre) television at a Dhaka ceremony, the victorious 40-year-old farmer told AFP: "Rodents are the most feared enemy for farmers so it is an honour to win this prize."

Authorities in the impoverished country launched the annual competition in a bid to reduce the loss of crops to rats.

The government estimates that up to 10 percent of Bangladesh's crops, mostly rice, wheat and potatoes, are devoured by millions of rats every year.

"During the special drive, our farmers and school kids killed 6.5 million rats, saving more than eight percent of the wheat crop," said Hannan.

Islam's techniques included traps, poison, electric barriers and flooding.

"The rats ravage our farms. I've seen it time and time again first hand. If I see one, I don't even stop to think. I just go for it and kill it. I'm saving myself and my livelihood by killing all these rats," he said.

Last year an invasion of rats in the southeastern Chittagong hill tracts region wiped out crops and caused a famine in some remote villages.

The UN's World Food Programme distributed food aid to 120,000 people for four months after the invasion forced affected tribal people to live on wild roots.