Better prepare East Africa: desert locust threat is not over
By Kawira Mutisya
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is seeking funding to continue with its fight against desert locusts in Eastern African countries affected by the menace.
Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Sudan continue facing a threat from the desert locusts. According to a statement from FAO, action to control unprecedented desert locust infestations in the Horn of Africa last year has succeeded in protecting crops and livelihoods. The UN agency is now seeking $38 million funding to sustain operations against new incursions and continue work in these countries.
FAO says that this is urgent because without this support, the 28 aircraft that patrol the skies to spot and spray swarms could be grounded as early as March.
In the latest desert locust invasion update by FAO, swarms continue to invade the Horn of Africa. FAO says that aerial and ground control operations are underway against highly mobile swarms in Ethiopia and Kenya, and hopper bands and mature swarms in northern Somalia.
In Ethiopia, immature swarms that were previously concentrated along the eastern side of the Harar Highlands in Oromia region have now spread throughout the region to the east of the Rift Valley. Immature swarms are also moving northwards along the Rift Valley. Other swarms remain concentrated in Eastern Ethiopia. Additional swarms are likely to appear in the Rift Valley south of Adama. The swarms will mature and lay eggs once rains fall.
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In Somalia, breeding continues in the northwest and northeast where mature swarms and hopper bands are present in areas that received favourable rains from Cyclone Gati in late November. Immature swarms continue to move south of the Shebelle River towards Kenya.
Immature swarms are spreading west throughout northern and central Kenya. Swarms have now been seen in seven counties compared to four previously. A few swarms are starting to mature. In the southeast, hopper bands are present near Taita Taveta and on the coast that could form swarms shortly.
As conditions remain dry in some areas, the swarms are expected to disperse throughout southern Ethiopia and north-central Kenya. Rainfall in the coming weeks will cause swarms to mature and lay eggs that will hatch and give rise to hopper bands during February and March.
“Winter breeding continues along both sides of the Red Sea. In Yemen, maturing swarms appeared in the highlands west of Sana’a most likely coming from inaccessible areas on the coast and elsewhere. Scattered adults are present along the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden coastal plains but do not require control. In Saudi Arabia, control operations are in progress against mainly second instar hopper groups and a few bands along the coast from Jizan to Lith, extending nearly to Duba on the north coast. In Sudan, control teams are treating hopper bands along the Atbara River, on the coast near Eritrea and, mixed with groups of adults, along Wadi Oko/Diib in the northeast near Egypt. In Eritrea, hopper groups and bands are being treated on the northern coast.” The FAO update reads in part. FAO has therefore called on all countries to maintain maximum efforts in conducting the necessary survey and control operations to reduce further migration and breeding.
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We are running out of time!
According to Dominique Burgeon, FAO’s Director of Emergencies and Resilience, there was a huge invasion of desert locust swarms in 2020, covering expanses as wide as 60 kilometres. This had not been seen in decades, and it poses a huge threat to food security in a region where many were already going hungry.
Surveillance and response led to 1.6 million hectares of land being treated. As a result, more than three million tonnes of cereals, valued at approximately $940 million, were protected: enough to feed 21 million people for a year.
“We can say that huge progress has been made, capacities of the countries have been tremendously augmented…but yet the situation is not over,” Burgeon told the media. “We have made a huge effort, we are much better prepared, but we should not be complacent. We should not relax.”
Future projection: No one knows the day or the hour
A statement from FAO has Keith Cressman, Senior Locust Forecasting Officer, saying that Cyclone Gati in December brought heavy rains, creating the conditions for new swarms to form in eastern Ethiopia and central Somalia. Locusts began migrating south to northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia when the waters dried up, as experts had predicted.
“We had forecasted this in October. We had provided early warning to both countries to expect this shortly after mid-December, and that’s indeed what happened”, he said. “And since then, they have been arriving nearly every day.”
The locusts are young now but will mature, and reproduce, in the coming months. FAO anticipates a new generation will emerge in early April, coinciding with seasonal rains and the planting period in Kenya and southern Ethiopia.
Desert locusts are also breeding further north, on Somalia’s coastline on the Gulf of Aden, with new swarms likely to begin forming in late February.
“This is a cause of concern, and this is also why it’s extremely important that the control operations…are not disrupted”, said Mr. Cressman
East Africa is generally known for its reliance on farming as a source of food as well as livelihood. So with threats like the desert locust, farmers can lose up to 100 percent of their crops and their fodder, devastating their food security, livelihoods and the economy. This is why it is important for the countries to remain alert and plan ahead to avert the threat before it causes more damage.
Some countries are already feeling the pinch according to data from FAO. The livelihoods of farmers and pastoralists in Somalia have already been stretched to the limit due to extended and often extreme droughts, episodes of flooding, as well as conflict and insecurity. They can’t afford another threat to their food security, let alone one as destructive as the desert locust.
