US$2 Million Disbursed by the AfDB to WHO Africa Response as a Fiasco to Thwart Desert Locusts

By Abdul Rahman Suagibu –

Photo Credit: The Young Witness

NEW AFRICA BUSINESS NEWS ( NABN ) Freetown, Sierra Leonne- One of the countries in the East and Horn of Africa – Tanzania is exists among the batch to succeed from US$ 1.5million doled out by the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) as a disaster grant to harness desert locusts.

The appointed assistance that was authorized on Wednesday April 1st, 2020 will be funneled to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which has been instructed to muster reserves on behalf of the African Union.

Steps to maintain the infestations will require around US$147 million, of which US$ 75 million has been given by governments, donors and UN agencies, including FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP).

Nonetheless, a substantial budget shortfall survives. Supplementary beneficiary countries are Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.

From a release broadcasted to the media on April 2nd, 2020 the funds will be expended on restricting the stretch of the recent locust incursion, deter probable next-generation throngs and to administer an effect appraisal and monitoring to amplify preparedness and insight. A portion of the funds would also be spent on meeting administrative costs.

“IGAD is collaborating with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) which is overseeing the coordination of development partner support to procure desert locust aggression control, safeguarding livelihoods and to promote early recovery of affected house promoting the East and Horn of Africa. FAO will act as the Executing Agency for the grant,” the statement read in part.

Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia have been particularly hard hit by the outbreak and widespread breeding of locusts that is expected to create new swarms in the coming weeks.

The infestation poses an unprecedented risk to livelihoods and food use, security in an already fragile region and has caused huge damage to agricultural production.

Billions of locusts have been swarming throughout eastern Africa for months, ravaging crops and threatening the food source for millions of people in the region.

According to the UN, unusual climate conditions have enabled the locusts to reproduce more rapidly, and that the arrival of the rainy season from March through May will likely make matters worse.

Locust swarms are reportedly also threatening Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Sudan and Eritrea.

In Ethiopia, the locusts have devastated more than 30,000 hectares of crops, including coffee and tea that account for about 30 per cent of the nation’s exports.

Despite the government’s interventions, swarms and breeding have been reported in large parts of the country. In Djibouti, over 80 per cent of 1,700 agro-pastoral farms located in 23 production zones are affected by desert locust infestations.

Despite government efforts to curb the outbreak, at least 18 of 47 Kenyan counties are affected with more than 70,000 hectares of crops under infestation according to recent FAO reports.

Locust swarms are devastating pastureland, maize, cowpeas, beans and other crops. In Ethiopia and Somalia, the outbreak is the worst in 25 years, and in Kenya, in 70 years.

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