The Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries will need over Shs 5billion to combat an ‘impending’ locust outbreaks.
While addressing journalists at Media Centre on Friday, the state Minister for Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Aggrey Bagiire said by last October, the Desert Locust situation had worsened in Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, and Somalia and the governments had instituted aerial spray control operations with support from Desert Locust Control Organization for Eastern Africa (DLCOEA) and other Development partners.
He added that since the current control capacity is limited, some of the swarms could move further Western into Turkan county, probably by Mid January 2020, with likely potential and risk that some swarms could spill over into the North Eastern region of Uganda, particularly Karamoja region (borders Turkana County)
This forced the ministry to send a technical team of two officers to Kenya (Wajir and Marsabit counties) to understudy the current Locust control operations to subsequently share experiences and support the control efforts in Uganda (in case of an outbreak) and to combat the outbreak will require a lot of money.
“The Ministry has communicated to the Office of the Prime Minister on the imminent Locust invasions and requested Ministry Of Finance Planning and Economic Development (MOFPED) for provision of a contingency fund of Shs5bn to cater for aircraft fuel (aircraft to be provided by DLCOEA), pesticides for control, provide for ground spray equipment and spray teams and to continuously create awareness to the population in case of an invasion,” he said.
The Ministry has also alerted all districts in Karamoja and entire Eastern Region to be on the lookout and the public to report immediately to the nearest Extension Staff in case of any strange grasshoppers detected in their areas.
“The Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries request the country not to panic because we are now vigilant following up developments and control efforts in Kenya. In case of any an outbreak, we are ready to handle it,” said Bagiire.
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