Posted on February, 22, 2021 at 10:00 am
Agriculture minister Prof Adolf Mkenda has urged residents in the two districts to be patient as the government moves to combat the waves of locusts, noting the fast-moving insects will be controlled as equipped units the ministry are deployed to control the invasion.
“We are going to use spray planes to kill the desert locusts which have been attacking crops with devastating effect in Longido and Simanjiro districts. Our experts are collaborating with the Tropical Pesticides Research Institute (TPRI), led by Acting Director General Dr Ephraim Njau, he stated.
The minister cautioned residents in the two districts from touching and eating the dead grasshoppers as they are killed by poison, telling village and ward executive officers to inform the residents on the on-going spraying exercise.
“No one should touch or eat the dead insects,” he reiterated, underlining that the government is determined to protect farmers’ crops as well as grazing land.
The government has managed to successfully control the fast-moving insects since they were reported to invade some parts of the country earlier last month, he said, acknowledging that desert locusts pose a threat to food security as they devastate broad areas, flying to and eating on areas up to 150 kilometers per day.
He said the grasshoppers’ eating capacity differs from one another whereas a single group estimated to have 40 million locusts can destroy crops at an area covering one squire kilometer.
Longido district executive director Jumaa Mhina ordered the closure of primary and secondary schools in all the areas where the spraying exercise will be conducted.
The move is meant to protect children from possible poison fallout risks during the four days of the operation, he said.
Longido legislator Dr Steven Kiruswa called upon the government to speed-up the spraying exercise to save farmers from losing all their crop this season.
“The desert locust invaded our district in the past three days. We appeal for government support to contain them as they are wreaking havoc in our farms,” the MP stated, noting also that many of the residents are pastoralists depending on abundant availability of grass to feed the animals.
On Friday, Longido District Commissioner Frank Mwaisumbe was quoted saying the locusts have spread to many parts of the district.
“They were first seen at the border area near Namanga town and later I got information of these insects being seen in other places” he said.
Last week, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported immature swarms in Kenya’s northern and central counties, and in Kilifi County in upper Coast region. There are a few small immature swarms formed from previous breeding in the Coast region near Lamu and probably in adjacent areas of southern Somalia, the UN agency stated.
Swarms are highly mobile and the same swarm can be sighted several times, thus some locust concentrations were spotted in parts of the Rift Valley region, Kenya’s bread basket.
The swarms of locusts now threaten the livelihoods of millions of people in Kenya as the conflicts in Yemen, Somalia and northern Ethiopia make it difficult for FAO to control the breeding and movement of the pests at the source. FAO attributes the upsurge of locusts to favourable breeding grounds in these countries.
“We are having a second wave because of the favourable breeding weather conditions in Ethiopia and Somalia,” said Hamisi Williams, assistant FAO representative in Kenya.
“Yemen seems to be a gateway to the Horn of Africa because when the southerly winds begin to blow, locusts cross over the Red Sea to the Horn of Africa,” he said.
“Control measures including aerial spraying and mapping out breeding areas have been hampered by the fighting in Yemen, which is the one of the largest breeding grounds of desert locusts,” he pointed out.
Swarms can fly up to 150 kilometres a day with the wind, and a single square kilometre swarm can eat as much food in a day as 35,000 people, experts assert.
Source: IPP Media