Uganda Not Under Threat Of Locust Invasion – Minister

 

The minister of Agriculture, Mr Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja, has said Uganda is not among the countries under attack from the locusts.

Swarms of locusts are currently affecting crop production in Somalia, Kenya and other countries in the East African region.

But addressing journalists in Kampala on Tuesday, Mr Ssempijja said Uganda’s strategy to keep out such pests is channelled through the Department of Crop Protection.

He revealed that Uganda also benefits from its membership to the Desert Locust Control Organisation for Eastern Africa (DLCO-EA), which is a regional pest and vector management organization that has its headquarters in Ethiopia.

Its mandate is to promote control operations and forecast techniques against upsurges and plagues of the desert locust, as well as of the larvae of the African armyworm moth, the grain-eating birds and the tsetse fly that transmits the deadly human sleeping sickness.

While Uganda is currently locust-free, the minister has urged farmers to follow the appropriate pest control measures provided through the extension system.

Desert locusts are destroying tens of thousands of hectares of crops and grazing land in Somalia in the worst invasion in 25 years, the United Nations food agency said, and the infestation is likely to spread further.

Locusts have already destroyed acres of farmland in and Ethiopia, threatening food supplies in the worst locust invasion in 70 years, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).