NAIROBI, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's Ministry of Agriculture on Wednesday announced plans to increase the number of aircraft used for spraying desert locusts from the current nine to 20, a senior government official said.
Peter Munya, cabinet secretary of Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives said that from the damage that the country has so far witnessed, there is a need to deploy 10 aircraft for spraying and 10 for surveillance.
"The desert locust invasion has significantly and adversely affected pasture in counties in arid and semi-arid land in northern Kenya," said Munya, adding that the government also intends to acquire 20 vehicles equipped with suitable sprayers for ground control of mainly the hatching hoppers.
He said that ministry in collaboration with other stakeholders, has deployed one aircraft for surveillance and eight for aerial spraying out of the nine aircraft.
He said that the team has enhanced control operations and are focusing on the new generation of locusts in the country.
"We have set up six effective coordination control bases in all affected regions in northern and eastern Kenya," he added.
Munya said the locust desert invasion has concentrated in the arid and semi-arid land areas where some 60 percent of the livestock are found.
He said that the locusts that have been in Kenya for the last three months have damaged lots of farms hence threatening food security in the country.
"We have trained 500 National Youth Service servicemen and 240 agricultural extension officers from the affected counties, equipped and deployed them in the control bases for ground control operations," he said.
He added that the government is in the process of completing the sourcing for 100,000 liters of pesticides required for both aerial and ground spraying.
