Credit: ICPAC( IGAD Climate Prediction & Application Centre)
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development IGAD, is actuating surveillance and mitigations on transboundary pests, attributing El-nino and climatic conditions to favoring their survival.
The IGAD regions that comprise of Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Djibouti , Somalia and Eritrea region, have been facing multiple weather and climate related extreme events, such as drought, floods, locust and other pest invasions like, Fall Army worms and the Quelea birds.
According to experts, a few swarms had been spotted in parts of the IGAD region but efforts by
the Inter-Regional Platform for the Sustainable Management of Desert Locusts and Trans-
Boundary Pests, executed by IGAD, has been able to swiftly assist members states with early
warning information and supporting the actors in response to contain the situation.
In this regard, government including Kenya and other various institutions, are prepared to deal
with any occurrences or invasions of locusts and destructive pests and birds such as Quelea birds
which have been affecting irrigated crop areas.
Video -Kenneth (No Alarm)-Credit Lina Mwamachi.
The organization says that so far the situation has been well controlled in north western parts of
Somalia and Yemen, so the impact is still very low, while regional governments, including
Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, are preparing to deal with any desert locust invasion. This time the Desert Locust Organization of East Africa (DLCO-EA), which all the countries of ICPAC are a part of actively assisting the countries in control.
Measures including, early action warning, which helps to prevent impacts of pest outbreaks; Continuous monitoring through inter-agency collaboration, Crisis communication has been integrated into National and Regional Pest Management Plans as well as the IGAD Pests Knowledge Management and Crisis Communication Strategy Plan are already in place.
Speaking at a conference that brought together stakeholders of weather forecasting issues from
the ICPAC organization, Wanahabari Centre, a center for journalists and journalists drawn from
the IGAD countries, Kenneth Mwangi, a Scientist in charge of early warning and climate
monitoring at the ICPAC, said there is lower concern about the possibility of locust invasion, because proper strategies have been placed to face the challenges.
Mwangi, cites that, Kenya as a country, through the Ministry of Agriculture well-coordinated
Plant Protection Division, has put in measures to tackle any pest invasion, since they had the
information from August this year, which has helped in early preparedness in the event of any
occurrences of desert locust and Quelea birds.
Typically, a swarm of desert Locusts can comprise of more than 150 million locusts per square
kilometer, which fly in the direction of the prevailing wind, more than 140 kilometers in a day,
therefore becoming a threat to food production and livelihoods in many countries in Africa more
so the Sub Saharan regions.
