Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Kenya is now
advocating for immediate action to curb the increasing spread of desert locusts
in the country.
According to latest updates, about seventeen (17) counties
in the country have been hit the outbreak.
FAO’s response to desert locusts in the horn of Africa, and
generally Kenya is to curb the spread of the locusts and safeguard livelihoods.
The organizations states that the situation remains
extremely alarming in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia where widespread desert locust
infestations and a new generation of breeding threatens food security and
livelihoods.
However, in the countries of Uganda and Tanzania, the
situation is less worrying.
On Thursday, Government Spokesman Retired Col. Cyrus Oguna
said that government is working hard to beef up measures to curb dessert
locusts spread.
Oguna said that a team of trained National Youth Service
(NYS) has been deployed in the affected areas to help spraying efforts.
The more than 300 troops from NYS will increase ground
control of these migratory pests.
Despite this efforts, farmers in the affected areas are
still crying foul of the locusts’ infestation, something FAO says it should be
dealt with.
“The locusts appeared, and we called the authorities
immediately. The aeroplanes started the spraying from that edge of the river.
Some died, but the rest of the swarm moved to our farms,” complains a farmer in
Kyuso, Kitui County.
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