Staple crops in eastern Africa are subject to serious pre-and post-harvest pest damage. Major losses can be attributed to rats, making them in several places the most important pre-harvest pest species.Indiscriminate use of rodenticides is neither efficient nor sustainable and there is a need for ecologically based management strategies. This project will investigate the needed biological information and collect data on the economic aspects of damage and controls. Based on these data, tools for the organisation and evaluation of management strategies will be developed. Population dynamic information will be elaborated into early-warning systems and bioeconomic decision making models. Different approaches, not based on rodenticides, will be developed and tested (seed repellents, biological control with predators, use of agroforestry).The end result will be a more sustainable, cost-effective protection of staple crops in eastern Africa.