Desert Locust invasion

Extreme weather

Experts on locusts say extreme weather patterns in the eastern Africa region have created and sustained the perfect breeding environment for the insects, facilitating rapid swarm growth that the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization has warned could grow 500 times by June, this year.

According to an update released by FAO on Feb. 24, the situation “remains extremely  alarming” in the Horn of Africa, more specifically in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia where widespread breeding is in progress  and new swarms are expected to form around March.

FAO said swarms of desert locusts which are unrelated to the ones currently wreaking havoc in East Africa had recently made significant movement over the Arabian Peninsula and had reached both sides of the Persian Gulf.

In Saudi Arabia, for instance, ground control operations increased against hopper bands on the Red Sea Coast and immature groups and swarms in the interior. In Yemen, another generation of breeding is in progress on the Red Sea Coast where hatching and early instar hopper bands are forming. Immature and mature swarms arrived in Kuwait, Qatar and along the southwest of Iran on February 20-21.

In eastern Africa, breeding of the locusts continues unabated in Somalia and Ethiopia and this worries Ugandan authorities more. In Kenya, FAO said in its brief that authorities continue to report swarms in northern and the central parts of the country while mature swarms have been sighted around Lake Turkana.

In the DR Congo, a small group of mature desert locust arrived on the western shore of Lake Albert near Bunia on Feb. 21 after crossing northern Uganda, thanks to strong northeasterly winds. The invasion of Congo, FAO said, was the first since 1944. Millions of these are mature and continue to lay eggs. Hatching of the eggs, officials say, will increase the number of hopper bands in the coming weeks causing them to swarm around the region.

Dr. Antonio Querido, the FAO Representative in Uganda earlier told The Independent that as long as Kenya has not brought the infestation under control, swarms may continue to arrive in Uganda.

He told The Independent that only effective surveillance will guide the country to deploy relevant control measures such as aerial spraying.

“It is very important that Uganda keeps an active surveillance system especially in areas where these adult swarms have been,” he said.

“If the swarms present in Uganda find suitable areas for laying eggs, these will hatch into hoppers in about 14 days or months to come depending on how favourable the climatic conditions are. Hopper bands are the most destructive stage of the Desert Locust cycle as they feed on anything green.”

Querido added: “If the locust hoppers are not controlled at the breeding (stage), they will quickly mature into adult hoppers, a stage that feeds unselectively on anything green. Locusts destroy food crops and livestock forage.”

Going forward, Minister Ssempijja said President Museveni has ordered procurement of two aircraft to spray the locusts.  Although some government critics have expressed their dissatisfaction at the response from the government, calling it lackluster and haphazard, Ssempijja said he was so far happy with the response from the government and development partners.

He argued that while in Kenya it took weeks for the government to respond to the invasion, in Uganda it took less than 24 hours.

The government mobilized close to Shs 22bn from its treasury and development partners and bought appropriate equipment and pesticides, leased an aircraft to help spray the locusts. However, of the initial Shs 22bn originally earmarked for the desert control, more than half (Shs 11.1bn) went to paying Uganda’s arrears to the Desert Locust Control Organization.

Apparently, Uganda had not paid its membership fees in 40 years. Another Shs 3.6bn was dispatched for hiring the specialized aircraft while Shs 300 million was given to the UPDF operations. Shs 7bn was used to buy pesticides and other logistics.  Ssempijja said that his ministry had asked for another Shs 16bn to fight the desert locusts.

“We have asked for Shs 16bn; with Shs 9bn intended for the UPDF officers who are combating the locusts on the ground,” he said, adding that Shs 5.6 million will be used to buy more chemicals.

“We have also found out that we have to engage the local administration units (LCI, LCII, LCIII, LCIV and LCV) and we have budgeted for about Shs 1.2bn for this lower local government which we didn’t think about initially,” Ssempijja added.

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