Food security is a major concern at a global level.In Southeast Asia rice is the staple crop.In 2007,rice represented 32%of agricultural output,and 29%of household calories.The challenge is to increase global rice production by 1.5%per annum simply to meet the demand of the growing population.This will require increased production in the face of shortages of rural labor,loss of prime rice land to urban development,competition for water with the needs of cities,and climate change.The impacts of rodents pre-harvest are legendary as too are their incursions on the day-to-day lives of people.Losses to rodents in many places are accepted by farmers simply because it always has been so,and there is inadequate knowledge of how to protect grain from the depredations of rodents.In addition,research and development priorities for increasing rice production rarely include rodent management because there are inadequate data on the losses caused by rodents.This paper will review the economic losses caused by rodents in intensive lowland rice production agro-ecosystems in Southeast Asia.Also,we will present some new data on the impacts of rodents in the Mekong delta in Vietnam.The findings clearly highlight that rodents are a major problem which needs to be tackled now in the context of food security in Southeast Asia in the immediate and long term future.