Before migration, swarms will remain for a short time during which there is a considerable threat to crops and pastures in Turkana and Marsabit counties.
Image: MUSEMBI NZENGU
Locust swarms that are still ravaging parts of Turkana and Marsabit counties are expected to decline this month, the Food and Agriculture Organisation has said.
An update on the desert locust watch report shows an increasing number of second-generation immature swarms were reported to form in Northwest Kenya over the last two weeks.
The report, however, says there will be a decline in July with the swarms expected to migrate northwards to Sudan and Ethiopia.
“Before migration, swarms will remain for a short time during which there is a considerable threat to crops and pastures in Turkana and Marsabit counties. Thereafter, the swarms are expected to migrate northwards to the summer breeding areas in Sudan and Ethiopia where they will mature quickly and lay eggs,” the report released last week says.
The desert locusts were first reported in Kenya on December 28 last year in Mandera county having crossed the border from Somalia. They then spread to more than 20 counties by April. Other swarms continued coming in from Ethiopia.
The locust invasion has so far destroyed over 10,000 acres in Kenya and 200,000 hectares in Ethiopia.
Desert locusts last invaded Kenya in 2007. They were mostly concentrated in Mandera and Wajir counties according to the Department of Plant Protection in the Ministry of Agriculture.
FAO says some of the swarms will take about a week to cross into South Sudan to reach South Kordofan and South Darfur while other swarms will move north into Ethiopia.
“Any swarms in northern Somalia can migrate across the Indian Ocean to the summer breeding areas along both sides of the Indo-Pakistan border,” FAO said.
The locust watch update also indicated that an increased number of immature swarms were reported in Eastern Ethiopia between El Kere and Jijiga, most likely arising from local breeding as hopper bands persist in many areas.
This, FAO said, may have also been supplemented by some swarms arriving from northern Kenya.
“Although control operations continue, a general northerly movement of swarms will occur in the three countries. Some of the swarms in northwest Kenya are expected to transit through South Sudan to reach the summer breeding areas of Sudan where some rains have already fallen," FAO says.
It adds," If these rains are not enough, there is a risk that swarms could continue to eastern Chad and spread westwards across the northern Sahel of West Africa."
FAO has warned that Sudan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan, and India should remain on high alert while West Africa should continue to take anticipatory measures and preparatory steps.
Edited by P.O