The Kenyan experience in managing desert locusts upsurge

In 2019, Kenya was under siege by a swarm of desert locusts that are threatening farmers’ crops and pastures. Kenya had not experienced a locust invasion in seven decades. The most affected countries were Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia who had not had locust invasion in quarter of a century.

This research was presented by Keith Cressman, a Senior Locust Forecasting Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN FAO) who was speaking at the  ‘Managing the Desert Locust Upsurge: The Kenyan Experience’ webinar on March 10, 2021. Cressman gave a detailed narrative on how the desert locusts entered the Horn of Africa in 2019.  

“Locusts are destructive. A small locust swarm can contain up to 40 million locusts capable of eating the same amount of food in a day as about 35,000 people,” he explained. “To contain the locusts FAO supported by mobilizing communities, training youth in ground surveillance of swarms and using satellite based tools to track the locusts in real time. We cannot control weather patterns like cyclones which result in upsurge of desert locusts, but we can control the locusts.”

Cressman gave an update on the desert locust situation saying there is good progress made as there are no more swarms coming into Kenya from the north. This means 800 million crop production has been saved and 28 million lives protected.

Speaking at the webinar, the Vice Chancellor Prof. Stephen Kiama said that when the country was confronted with desert locusts invasion in December 2019, the University of Nairobi stepped forward and provided highly trained scientists to support the government in the management of locust menace.

“UoN staff from crop protection related thematic areas were included in the Multi-Institutional Technical Team (MITT) formed by the government to lead the process,” he revealed. “As an academic and research institution, we need to work with key stakeholders in developing  viable and sustainable approaches to help the community manage these pests whose impact on food security is already very detrimental in the Horn of Africa region.”

Prof. Kiama noted that in order to manage the locust situation, there is need to formulate short courses focusing on equipping country management teams with basics skills of desert locust survey and control. This can be done with key stakeholders like FAO and Desert Locust Control Organization for Eastern Africa (DLCO-EA) on the nature of curriculum that would be suitable for the above themes.

Assistant Food & Agricultural Organization Representative (FAO) Hamisi Williams talked about the steps that have been made in resourcing and controlling the desert locusts.

“To curb the spread on locusts, the government received a funding of $25.9M out of the $32.1M required.  During the first wave the government used pesticides, aircrafts sprayer equipment, vehicles and GPS devices to contain the situation. The second wave was expected in Kenya in December 2020 but due to conflicts in Yemen, Ethiopia and Somalia which distracted control plans, the country started experiencing the second way on 7th November 2020,” he explained.

Hamisi noted that some of the measures that have been taken include space and survey aircrafts for aerial control and training scouts, young professionals, national youth service and use of downloaded apps that can be used in non-network coverage areas for ground control.

The Dean, School of Biological Sciences, Dr. Catherine Lukhoba, urged researchers to come forward and partner with the school on pest control.

“The school is willing to partner with such institutions and researchers to come up with ways of regulating and management of such pests that impact adversely on human activities,” she said.

In order to forge the way forward and prevent future invasion, there is need for domestication of desert locust control as part of curriculum in Kenyan institutions of higher learning, there is also need to have and maintain the infrastructure even with no invasion, adequate training for local experts and long term management desert locust management strategy.