Locusts to Continue Attack till End of February, Says Agriculture Ministry

Addis  Ababa, January 23/2020 (ENA) Ministry of Agriculture announced that it is taking measures to control desert locust swarms which will continue migrating to Ethiopia in five directions.

In a press briefing he gave today, Plant Health Care Director Zebdios Selato said today huge number of swarms is expected to migrate to Ethiopia through five different directions till the  end of next month.

According to him, the untimely rain during the past months has created conducive environment to the swarms to re-migrate from Kenya, in addition to the pervious ones from Somalia, Somaliland, Yemen, and Puntland.

“We have fortunately identified the corridors through which the swarm are entering to the country. So, we have added two more aircrafts to fight the locust. In total, we have assigned  four aircrafts to prevent them from crossing across the corridors”, the director elaborated.

Zebdios noted that cooperation among east African countries is very crucial in fighting the swarms.

In this regard, Ethiopia and Kenya have signed a cross-border agreement to work closely in monitoring and controlling the desert locust.

So far about 65,000 hectare of lands have been affected by swarms, he revealed. Of this,  58,628 hectare was freed from locusts.