(3 minutes read)
· The World Bank will pay Kenya more funds to fight against
locusts people.
The multilateral bank had approved a US$43 million – Sh4.59 billion –
loan for Kenya as part of a larger regional Emergency Locust Response
Project
· This will enable the country to respond to the threat posed
by the locust outbreak and to strengthen Kenya’s system for
preparedness against the eventualities.
· Some of the countries which bore the brunt of locust attack
are Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Djibouti, Uganda and Tanzania.
The World Bank will pay Kenya more funds to fight against locusts people.
The multilateral bank had approved a US$43 million – Sh4.59 billion –
loan for Kenya as part of a larger regional Emergency Locust Response
Project to enable the country to respond to the threat posed by the
locust outbreak and to strengthen Kenya’s system for preparedness
against the eventualities. It may be recalled that Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) has termed the locust invasion in
Kenya as the worst of its kind in 70 years. The locust menace has been
reported from 28 countries in Africa, affecting crops spread over
thousands of hectares of land.
The infestation has spread through much of the eastern part of the
continent and the Horn of Africa. Some of the countries which bore the
brunt of locust attack are Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Djibouti,
Uganda and Tanzania. Locust can travel over 80 miles a day. A swarm
may contain 80 million locust adults in each square kilometer. They
eat the same amount of food daily as much as 35,000 people eat daily.
This is a huge threat to achieving food security to the continent.
Close to 12 million people already are experiencing acute food
shortages in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. The locust threat
exacerbated the threat by bringing another 20 million people to the
vagaries of food crisis.
