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Desert Locust in Kenya - Support to Farmers in Turkana County VNR

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) launched a massive control operation to curb the spread of desert locusts and mitigate the impact on food security and livelihoods in Kenya.

In Turkana County, Kenya, the ongoing infestation of desert locusts has caused significant damage to crops.

Duration 5m23s

Edit Version International

Video Type Video News Release (VNR)

Date 08/17/2020

File size 591.65 MB

Unique ID UF2T7S

All editorial uses permitted

Production details and shotlist

UNFAO Source FAO Video

Shotlist LOCATIONS: Turkana County, Kenya

DATE: June 2020

SOUND: Natural / English / Turkana / Swahili

LENGHT: 5’23”

SOURCE: FAO

RESTRICTION: Use of this content is for non-commercial and editorial purposes only. Please give on-screen credit to FAO

1. Close up of desert locust hoppers on the ground

2. Hoppers moving on the ground

3. Camera following the hoppers moving

4. Tilt up from hoppers on the ground to a farmer trying to disperse hoppers

5. Close up of a worried farmer face

6. A hopper eating a leaf

7. SOUNDBITE (Turkana) Lochom Ekiru, farmer in Kalemng’orok: “I am desperate, I was expecting a harvest to feed my family and take the children to school. Look at how my crops have been destroyed. Everything is gone now.”

8. Various of Joseph Tirkwel, farmer, assessing the damages in his field

9. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Joseph Tirkwel, farmer in Napeikar, Turkana county: “If the locusts have come later, when the crops were ready at least I could have harvested some food for my family. That would have been more bearable. Now I don’t know what to do.”

10. FAO team walking in the field

11. Tobias Takavarasha, FAO representative in Kenya, ( center) walking

12. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Joseph Tirkwel, farmer in Napeikar, Turkana county: “We are all asking, where to get help to control these Desert Locusts? We tried to eradicate them ourselves, but we failed. But today I received the news that officers from FAO are coming to assess the damage, as if God answered our prayers.”

13. Close up of a damaged maize plant

14. Various close up of hoppers eating crops

15. SOUNDBITE (English) Tobias Takavarasha, FAO representative in Kenya: “Desert locusts are real and the damage that they can cause is not an exaggeration. There is nothing that beats to come and see with your own eyes.”

16. Various of a farmer trying to disperse locusts in the field

17. SOUNDBITE (English) Tobias Takavarasha, FAO representative in Kenya: “Many farmers are facing a lot of threats to discourage their efforts in addressing food security for themselves, their communities and the nation.”

18. Man opening the gate of Nakukulas Botanical Garden, hoppers in the foreground

19. Desert locust hoppers on cultivated trees

20. Anna Akale, chairperson of Nakukulas Botanical Garden picking small watermelons from the ground

21. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Anna Akale, chairperson of Nakukulas Botanical Garden: “They have eaten everything. We had two rows of watermelon here. When locust hopper bands came yesterday, they ate the leaves and even nibbled on the young watermelons.”

22. Anna Akale looking at hoppers all around her shaking her head

23. Anna Akale shaking off hoppers from a net

24. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Anna Akale, chairperson of Nakukulas Botanical Garden: “Before we learned how to farm, we used to just stay home. We were often depending on aid. Turkana was always drought stricken and our cattle were many times raided by other people. We were living in utter poverty.”

25. Man preparing spraying equipment

26. Close up of hands on a spraying equipment

27. Anna Akale watching as men putting on protective suits

28. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Anna Akale, chairperson of Nakukulas Botanical Garden: “But since we have this demo farm we learned how to grow different types of crops. And we saw how we can prosper as women. We were happy until these desert locusts arrived here. We are no longer okay and we don’t know how to continue with this farm.”

29. Men in protective suits wearing gloves

30. Tilt up to a man spraying pesticide on hoppers

31. Men spraying hoppers on a net

32. Man spraying hoppers in a field

33. Various of dying hoppers

34. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Joseph Tirkwel, farmer in Napeikar, Turkana county: “When the desert locust came, I was so worried. My enthusiasm to work on the farm nearly evaporated. Once they are all gone, I will resume. I have not completely given up.”

35. Various of Tobias Takavarasha (in hat) assessing the damages caused by hoppers

36. SOUNDBITE (English) Tobias Takavarasha, FAO representative in Kenya: “I was happy to talk to the farmer, he said he will not give up. He is a farmer, he is a soldier. He needs more equipment, he needs more support for him to continue with the war to fight against hunger. So, I am happy that as FAO together with the county government and the government of Kenya we are also not giving up on our efforts to support the farmers in their fight against pest, hunger and diseases.”

37. Various of Tobias Takavarasha walking in a field

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Script The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) launched a massive control operation to curb the spread of desert locusts and mitigate the impact on food security and livelihoods in Kenya.

In Turkana County, the ongoing infestation of the ravenous agricultural pest has caused significant damage to crops.

Lochom Ekiru, farmer in Kalemng’orok says that he is desperate: “I was expecting a harvest to feed my family and take the children to school. Everything is gone now.”

Kalemng’orok is a 1000-hectare communal farm, where each farmer has his own plot for growing a variety of crops.

Many had fully embraced selling surplus on local markets, in addition to growing food for their families, but this year, their crops and income have been decimated by the infestation of desert locusts.

Joseph Tirkwel, farmer in Napeikar, Turkana county, explains: “If the locusts have come later, when the crops were ready at least I could have harvested some food for my family. That would have been more bearable. Now I don’t know what to do.”

The region has already had a series of droughts since 2016 and the multiple layers of threats that the communities have been facing is a significant concern and a source of acute food insecurity.

“Turkana was always drought stricken and our cattle were many times raided by other people. We were living in utter poverty” says Anna Akale, chairperson of Nakukulas Botanical Garden.

The Nakukulas Botanical Garden was a source of empowerment for many women, but it has been heavily hit by hopper bands: “We learned how to grow different types of crops. And we saw how we can prosper as women,” affirms Anna Akale who adds: “we were happy until these Desert Locust arrived here. We are no longer okay and we don’t know how to continue with this farm.”

“Desert locusts are real and the damage that they can cause is not an exaggeration”, says Tobias Takavarasha, FAO representative in Kenya: “Many farmers are facing a lot of threats to discourage their efforts in addressing food security for themselves, their communities and the nation.”

In Turkana County, massive efforts have gone into both aerial and ground operations to control and contain a second-generation of locusts, either at hopper or at swarm stage.

“We tried to eradicate them ourselves, but we failed”, explains farmer Joseph Tirkwel: “but today I received the news that officers from FAO are coming to assess the damage, as if God answered our prayers.”

“I was happy to talk to the farmer, he said he will not give up”, says FAO representative in Kenya Tobias Takavarasha who continues: “So, I am happy that as FAO together with the county government and the government of Kenya we are also not giving up on our efforts to support the farmers in their fight against pest, hunger and diseases.”

In Kenya, FAO has trained hundreds National Youth Service (NYS) trainees as part of its action plan to boost the Government’s surveillance and control of the worst desert locust invasion the country has seen in 70 years.

From the beginning of January up until early August 2020 over 600,000 hectares have been controlled across the East Africa region.

So far, over a half a trillion locusts have been killed in the entire region, FAO estimates, and so were prevented from damaging crops and rangelands.

That is a success, but the threat of possible re-infestation towards the end of the year will call for careful and continued surveillance, warns FAO.

There is still a need to build up monitoring and response capacity across the whole region, to be ready if a renewed upsurge occurs.

From June to December many more people in East Africa could be severely food insecure due to desert locusts alone. But now with COVID-19 as an additional factor and the pre-existing caseload of people already food insecure prior to the upsurge, the situation in the region is quite dramatic.

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