Counties under locust invasion decline to three

The number of counties under locust invasion has dropped from 20 to just three, officials have said, citing “a concerted effort by multi-agencies”.

The 2020/21 budget flagged invasion by locusts, floods and Covid-19 as the key challenges set to upset the country’s growth.

Agriculture Principal Secretary Hamadi Boga said the war on the migratory pests has now been narrowed to Turkana, Samburu and Marsabit.

This comes even as the Red Cross is expected to submit its preliminary findings on the damage caused by locusts to the Ministry of Agriculture before the end of the week.

“The operations at the moment are still going on in Turkana, Samburu and Marsabit having been eliminated from other regions,” said Prof Boga told the Business Daily in an interview.

There were concerns that the second wave of locusts would be more devastating but the current efforts to combat the pests have allayed those fears.

In April Food and Agriculture Organisation had warned that the second wave of desert locusts will be 20 times bigger than the first one and would soon ravage farms in Kenya and East Africa.

The new swarms were expected to hatch last month and they were to be descendants of the first generation that the Horn of Africa countries have been battling to contain.

Having been eliminated in most of the counties, the country appears to be safe at the moment from the next generation of swarms that would have impacted negatively on food production.

Scientists estimated that the swarms in East Africa would be 400 times bigger by June if successive generations are not eliminated.

Red Cross has been conducting socio-economic impact of the locusts after the Agriculture ministry awarded them a Sh42 million consultancy to assess the damage caused by the insects.

The invasion has significantly and affected pasture in several counties like Samburu, Isiolo and Marsabit raising fears of fodder shortage in these regions.

The PS said it was unlikely that the locusts would move to the country’s breadbasket of north rift where this season maize crop is in the farm.