Honey producers in Kitui county suffered huge losses during the recent desert locust invasion.
The 2020-2021 aerial pesticide sprays left millions of bees decimated.
Value addition specialist in the office of the governor Temi Mutia, who runs a beekeeping programme, disclosed that bees suffered serious collateral damage.
“During the aerial spraying to control desert locusts, bees were killed in huge numbers threatening the livelihoods of beekeepers.
"We raised concern, resulting to adoption of vehicle mounted and hand held sprayers to minimise the killing of bees,” Mutia said on Saturday.
He spoke at Kwa-Nguru trading centre in Mwingi North subcounty of Kitui.
The county government of Kitui presented a donation of an assortment of honey harvesting gear to the Kwa-Nguru Bee Keepers self help group.
The apparatus included 10 bee suits and hand gloves, 10 pairs of gumboots, five smokers and 50 honey harvesting buckets.
They were received by the group’s vice chairman Joseph Mulyungi Mathuva.
Mutia said the aerial spraying during the locust invasion had a negative impact on honey production, since millions of bees were exterminated.
He advised beekeepers to avoid spraying farms during day time when bees are looking for nectar in flowers adding that the use of biopesticides was a better option.
The value addition specialist said the decimation of bees had a negative impact because not only do they produce honey but are also the biggest crop pollinators.
He said reduced bee numbers spelt doom to food security.
On Monday, the Kitui county Livestock and Veterinary director Josephat Maluki confirmed that a sizeable numbers of bees dies during the aerial spraying during locust control.
“It is true that bees suffered serious collateral damage but we are yet to conduct assessment to confirm the figures,” he said.
He said that the actual impact of the locust spraying and the number of bees that could have perished from the exercise would only be ascertained after an environmental impact assessment.
The county government of Kitui in March declared that the swarms of locusts that incessantly invaded most parts of Kitui since early 2020 has been wiped out.
The declaration was made by Kitui deputy governor Wathe Nzau.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
