The harvest in Kenya is likely to coincide with the arrival of a new generation of desert locusts to attack the crops, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Locusts also are swarming in Ethiopia and Somalia, said the FAO in an update headlined, “A second generation of breeding about to start in Kenya.”
“The current situation in East Africa remains extremely alarming as more swarms form and mature in northern and central Kenya [and] southern Ethiopia. This represents an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods because it coincides with the early beginning of the long rains and the current growing season,” said the FAO. “A new generation of breeding is underway in Kenya, where more eggs will hatch and form hopper bands during May, followed by new swarms in late June and July, which coincides with the start of the harvest.”
Because the desert locust can form large and fast-moving swarms that devastate vegetation in their paths, they are considered the most dangerous of all migratory pests. Each locust can eat its own weight in food each day. The current outbreak is the largest in Africa in decades. Swarms are active on the Arabian Peninsula and in southwest Asia.