Somali authorities have declared that they are better prepared than before to fight the new generation of locusts, hatched from larvae left behind by last year’s swarms, that threaten to wipe out farms and grazing in many parts of the country.

Nur Yusuf Nur, director ofSomalia’s Federal Ministry of Agriculture, told Radio Ergothat his ministry is collaborating with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to address the threat posed by the new swarms.

“We learned from last year’s disaster and we are taking measures to deal with the new swarms early enough,” he said.

The ministry has put in place containment plans and selected teams to deal with the locusts, while FAO has trained and equipped the teams in different parts of the country.

Eight fully-equipped vehicles, four each for Puntland and Galmudug, have been dispatched to spray identified areas, Nur Yusuf Nur said.

The director singled out Nugal, Bari, Mudug and north Galgaduud as the areas that are most immediately threatened by the new wave of locusts. They will therefore be sprayed first. Gedo, Bay and Hiran regions will be next, according to the ministry’s containment plan.

Abdiqadir Ali Samatar, director of the cropprotection unit at Puntland state’s Ministry of Agriculture, told Radio Ergo that locust larvae had been found in the Godobjiran and Hasbahal valleys of Nugal and Sool regions.

To contain the infestation, a 25 square kilometrearea of land where the larvae were spotted have already been sprayed, he said. He added that local farmers have also been trained and have been spraying the area for 12 consecutive days.

Abdiqadir praised local communities for their effort and collaboration with his team to combat the spread of the locusts in their areas.

Reconnaissance teams sent bythe cropprotection department to other areas in Puntland have identified Bargal and Baadweyn in Mudug region and Burowadal in Sool region as other locust hot spots.

The locust invasion in the country started in June last year when several waves entered the country from Ethiopia and the Arabian Peninsula. An estimated 70-105,000hectares of farm and pasture lands in the Horn of Africa region were affected by recent successive locust swarms, according to Nur Yusuf Nur.

Source: Radio Ergo