Desert Locust invasion: "Kenya is most affected"

Audio 04:30

By: Carrie Nooten Follow

The UN raised the alarm last week about the locust plagues that invaded the Horn of Africa. The organization said it will raise $ 76 million - a large portion of which is expected to be used to fund field operations. Keith Cressman is the only person in the world who spots, monitors and tracks the movements of desert locust swarms for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

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Carrie Nooten: Some swarms of locusts invaded Kenya as early as December, what is the current situation, and what is the damage ?
Keith Cressman: The main countries concerned are those of the Horn of Africa - Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya. Kenya is the most affected at the moment because it has been invaded by large swarms across the country. In fact, just a few days ago, swarms crossed the border into Tanzania, and west of Kenya, another swarm crossed over to Uganda. These are extremely rare movements: neither country had seen locusts since 1961. Because of the long absence of locust swarms in the Horn of Africa, it is very difficult for countries to respond quickly and effectively. Because they do not have the necessary infrastructure, or the means! No one remembers ever seeing swarms, except in the stories of their grandparents. So it's really very difficult.

In addition of course, the Horn of Africa is quite fragile in terms of food security and livelihoods: there have been a series of droughts in the past, now there are floods. So already people are at great risk of starvation. They are about 10 million to have reached the threshold of famine, and they are 20 million, I think, for the next tranche.

What are the causes ? How do you suddenly find yourself with hundreds of millions of locusts?
It is linked to weather phenomena of course ... 18 months ago, a cyclone came from the Indian Ocean in May 2019. It brought very heavy rain to the Arabian peninsula, called " the empty quarter " (Empty Quarter, Rub 'al Khali) which is as its name suggests: empty. There is nothing there, no infrastructure, no human trace, no road ... only large sand dunes. And of course, there were the winds that brought the locusts, probably all over the place, to this little concentrated corner where it rained. This allowed the locusts to breed for 6 months, and while it was going to start to dry out, another cyclone hit the area. And this allowed the locusts to continue to breed. And probably, over this period from the end of 2018 to the beginning of 2019, it is estimated that the number of locusts increased by 8,000. They were not detected and therefore could not be treated.

You are raising $ 76 million, how will that help reduce the spread of locusts ? How will you carry out the checks ?
Of this $ 76 million fundraiser launched by FAO, half will be used to finance operations. In this case, operations are mostly an aerial control operation - by planes flying low and spraying pesticide directly on the swarms that are on the ground. We have to use planes because of the magnitude of the problem. It is just impossible to treat all these infestations simply from the ground. Sure, we use pesticides, but these are safe products ... they dissolve after 24 hours, they break down in the environment - and are no longer effective.

In addition, for good results, the product must be sprayed on insects, locusts, directly. Finally, the formulation of this pesticide makes it fall into the category of “ ultra low volume ”. This means that you can spray a very small amount, but it will be highly concentrated. And therefore for this reason, farmers and communities cannot undertake the locust control operations themselves. They will be carried out by well-equipped teams, with equipment which protects them, and which will apply the pesticide to the locusts directly for an optimal result.

You would say that we are already in the most important desert locust crisis we have ever faced ?
No, we are not there yet, it could get much worse! Last time, 15 years ago, it took two years for us to regain control. We had spent almost $ 600 million and pulverized 12 million hectares of fields. Whereas so far we have only treated 2 million hectares - not in the Horn of Africa, but in other places where invasions were developing last year. As you can see, at the moment we have only asked for $ 76 million, but of course that figure will go up. If we imagine the worst scenario, that the control operations are not as effective as they should be, that they are not expanded as they should be in an emergency maintained, and that the weather remains favorable for the locusts, then yes, can be that by the end of 2020, we will have to reclassify the phenomenon as a scourge.

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• Kenya
• Environment
• Ethiopia
• Somalia

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