ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia is boosting efforts to fight a locust invasion that has threatened thousands of hectares of arable land in the east African country, a government official said on Friday.
Zebdewos Selato, director of the Plant Protection Directorate at the Ethiopia Ministry of Agriculture, said the locust invasion, which has affected large parts of the country, come from two direction.
"The first originated in Ethiopia's eastern neighbor Somalia, before migrating to the eastern and northern parts of Ethiopia," he said.
"The second locust invasion originates from Ethiopia's southern neighbor Kenya, before migrating to the southern parts of Ethiopia," Selato told Xinhua.
As the country enters its February-May rainfall season, known locally as Belg, the fight against locust invasion has taken on an important dimension.
"With the onset of the Belg season, locust swarms pose a danger to crops that are currently being planted,"he said. "The threat from the locust swarms are especially acute in parts of Ethiopia's Southern, Tigray, Amhara, Oromia, Somali and Afar regional states."
Earlier this month, the United Nations warned that Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia were facing the worst locust invasion in decades, which puts crop production, food security and millions of lives at risk.
"Even before this outbreak, nearly 20 million people faced high levels of food insecurity across the east African region, long challenged by periodic droughts and floods," the UN said.
Selato said his ministry is using aerial sprays as well as ground-based efforts to combat the locust invasion.
Regional administrations have also mobilized tens of thousands of volunteers to joint the fight.
