East Africa Battles the Worst Locust Swarms in Decades
A locust swarm in Kenya was estimated to be more than 930 square miles in size, containing up to 200 billion of the insects. Cr: (Ben Curtis/AP)
By: Julian Mok
Lexington — The Horn of Africa is facing its most serious locust infestation in decades. Swarms of hundreds of millions of desert locust sweep through much of Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya, destroying thousands of acres of crops and vegetation.
Even before the locust outbreak, nearly 20 million people across East Africa faced high levels of food insecurity, and food shortages have only been exacerbated by the voracious pest.
Extreme weather in 2019 – eight cyclones in East Africa, the most since 1976 – led to exceptional conditions for locust breeding. With more rains came more vegetation, allowing the finger-length insect to breed rapidly and form swarms of 150 million or more.
In 24 hours, a small swarm of just 500,000 locusts can consume an amount of food that would feed 2,500 people. A single swarm in Kenya was estimated to be more than 930 square miles, containing up to 200 billion hungry locusts.
The current locust upsurge originated in Yemen with swarms crossing the Red Sea into Ethiopia and Somalia. Farmers in the most severely affected areas in Ethiopia lost 100% of their crops to the pest.
It wasn’t until December when desert locusts first entered Kenya and, luckily, by that time many farmers had already harvested their crop. Pastoralists, however, face the brunt of the problem as locusts tear through vegetation and fodder that is usually eaten by their livestock. This is the worst locust outbreak the country has seen in 70 years.
Some experts predict that locust swarms could grow by a factor of 500 before slowing down in drier June conditions. Cr: (Source)
Rose-colored locusts turn entire fields pink, clinging to trees and vegetation before taking off and leaving behind a barren piece of land. While families do their best to ward off these pests by shouting and clanging pots and pans, there is little they can do to stop the damage.
According to the United Nations Humanitarian Chief, Mark Lowcock, "Vulnerable families that were already dealing with food shortages now face the prospect of watching as their crops are destroyed before their eyes." There is a sense of hopelessness as families watch, unable to do much to save their livelihood from the locusts.
The locust outbreak is expected to get worse before it gets better. With heavy rains expected in March, experts predict that locust swarms could grow by a factor of 500 before slowing down in drier June conditions.
Communities are doing what they can to control and contain the outbreak, but "the speed of the pests' spread and the size of the infestations are so far beyond the norm that they have stretched the capacities of local and national authorities to the limit," according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.
The best way to control the spread of these fast-moving locusts is to spray pesticides from the air. Ethiopia has almost 6000 acres of area treated by aerial application. Kenya currently has five planes spraying pesticides and four conducting surveillance.
In total, the UN has funneled about $10 million towards spraying, but they estimate that $70 million more is needed to spray sufficiently. Without the proper funds and methods of pest control, swarms of desert locust are expected to enter South Sudan, Uganda and Ethiopia’s Rift Valley in the near future.