Over the weekend, Kenya started aerial spraying in three counties in the country’s north to try to head off a locust invasion which has already caused extensive damage to farmland in neighboring Somalia and Ethiopia. Locusts have already destroyed 175,000 acres of farmland in Somalia and Ethiopia, threatening food supplies in both countries in the worst locust invasion in 70 years, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The statement said that the government had procured 3,000 liters of chemicals to help in the spraying and added it would also distribute handheld sprayers to some residents. The three affected counties are largely semi-arid and are occupied mostly by pastoral communities.
SOURCE: VOA
