Sunday, May 28, 2023
  • Login
Upgrade
The Southern African Times
  • Home
  • Southern Africa
  • Business
    • African Start ups
    • African Continental Free Trade Area
  • Tech
    • Lifestyle
      • Health
      • Culture
      • Food and Drink
      • Entertainment
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Events
  • SAT Jobs
  • About Us
    • Advertise with Us
    • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Southern Africa
  • Business
    • African Start ups
    • African Continental Free Trade Area
  • Tech
    • Lifestyle
      • Health
      • Culture
      • Food and Drink
      • Entertainment
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Events
  • SAT Jobs
  • About Us
    • Advertise with Us
    • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
The Southern African Times
No Result
View All Result
Home Eastern Africa

Kenya uses app in battle against desert locusts

by SAT Reporter
July 7, 2020
in Eastern Africa, Environment, Kenya
0
0
VIEWS

LORUGUM, Kenya (The Southern African Times) – Lorugum village in northwest Kenya is under siege. Hundreds of thousands of young desert locusts perch on trees, shrubs, and in the grass.

In the coming days or weeks, their bodies will turn from pink to yellow, their wings will harden and, if nothing is done to stop them, they will begin to swarm, with disastrous consequences for agricultural production and the environment. 

Using his smartphone camera, Christopher Achilo takes photos and videos of a tree trunk in the village that is crawling with the pink insects, and uploads the images onto an app. 

“One locust eats food equal to his weight (every day), so imagine having millions of locusts, if you cannot even see over the trees,” he said.

“Within some time, all the trees are just naked. Even they go inside the farms, they strip the farms, so it is a very big impact on the food security.”   

Achilo is one of a team of locust scouts trained by local aid group ACTED, with the help of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Turkana County regional government, to spot and report sightings using a new application, E-Locust. 

The information he and the others collect is sent in real-time to a database in Lodwar, Turkana’s main town, which is then used by another team deployed to spray the insects with pesticides to prevent swarm formation. 

Locust numbers, the worst in three generations, surged in East Africa and the Red Sea region in late 2019 and early this year, encouraged by unseasonably wet weather and dispersed by a record number of cyclones. 

The pests could cost East Africa and Yemen $8.5 billion this year, the World Bank has said. 

Swarms can fly up to 150 km (93 miles) a day with the wind, and a single square kilometre swarm can eat as much food in a day as 35,000 people. Desert locusts feed on nearly all green vegetation and crops, including leaves, flowers, bark, fruit, millet and rice. 

In a bulletin from July 3, the FAO said it expected swarm formation in Kenya to continue until mid-July. It said that in June, control operations treated around 30,830 hectares against locusts, around 8,500 hectares by air.

Previous Post

Kenya Airways to lay off staff, reduce network and assets -CEO

Next Post

U.N. expert deems U.S. drone strike on Iran’s Soleimani an ‘unlawful’ killing

SAT Reporter

Related Posts

Namibia hosts three-day conference to tackle human-wildlife conflict
Environment

Namibia hosts three-day conference to tackle human-wildlife conflict

by SAT Reporter
May 10, 2023
Kenyan businesses turn to Ethiopia as top foreign investment destination
Eastern Africa

Kenyan businesses turn to Ethiopia as top foreign investment destination

by SAT Reporter
May 10, 2023
Rwanda to spend almost $100mln rebuilding after floods
Environment

Rwanda to spend almost $100mln rebuilding after floods

by SAT Reporter
May 9, 2023
Ivory Coast’s cocoa harvests progress well despite below-average rainfall, say farmers
Environment

Ivory Coast’s cocoa harvests progress well despite below-average rainfall, say farmers

by SAT Reporter
May 1, 2023
East African Leaders Call for Immediate End to Sudan Conflict as Clashes Escalate
Eastern Africa

East African Leaders Call for Immediate End to Sudan Conflict as Clashes Escalate

by SAT Reporter
April 17, 2023
Next Post

U.N. expert deems U.S. drone strike on Iran's Soleimani an 'unlawful' killing

Browse by Category

  • African Continental Free Trade Area
  • African Debt
  • African Start ups
  • Algeria
  • Analysis
  • Angola
  • Asia
  • Botswana
  • BOTSWANA
  • BRICS
  • Burkina Faso
  • Burundi
  • Business
  • Business
  • Cameroon
  • Central Africa
  • China
  • Climate Change
  • Climate Changev
  • Congo Republic
  • COVID 19
  • Culture
  • Democratic Republic of Congo
  • Eastern Africa
  • Education
  • Egypt
  • Energy
  • Entertainment
  • Environment
  • Ethiopia
  • Europe
  • Fashion
  • Feature
  • Finance
  • Food
  • Food and Drink
  • Foods
  • Ghana
  • Global
  • Guinea
  • Health
  • Immigration
  • in Southern Africa
  • International news
  • Just In
  • Kenya
  • Lesotho
  • Libya
  • Life Style
  • Lifestyle
  • Malawi
  • Malawi
  • Mali
  • Markets
  • Middle East
  • Mozambique
  • Namibia
  • Nigeria
  • North Africa
  • North-Eastern Africa
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Racism
  • Rwanda
  • SAT Jobs
  • Senegal
  • Seychelles
  • South Africa
  • South Sudan
  • Sports
  • Startup Africa
  • STOCK EXCHANGE
  • Sustainablity
  • Tanzania
  • Tech
  • Togo
  • Travel
  • Travel
  • Tunisia
  • Uganda
  • Uncategorized
  • West Africa
  • World
  • World
  • ZAMBIA
  • Zambia
  • ZIMBABWE
  • Zimbabwe

Browse by Tags

africa African business news Africa News african footballer african markets African news African start-up banking Business China Classic Climate change Content currency economy Explore Bali Finance football Health Investment Kenya Life Style Markets Market Stories news Nigeria oil and gas Opinion Pandemic Politics Premium Russia South Africa Southern African News sports Stay Home technology Travel United Kingdom United Stated Vaccine Work From Home Wuhan Zambia Zimbabwe

WHO WE ARE

The Southern African Times is a regional bloc digital newspaper that covers Southern African and the world news. The paper also gives a nuanced analysis on news and covers a wide range of reporting which include sports, entertainment, foreign affairs, arts and culture.

Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram Rss

Copyright © 2022 The Southern African Times | Powered by The Southern African Times

Privacy Policy

Terms and Conditions

  • Home
  • Southern Africa
  • Business
    • African Start ups
    • African Continental Free Trade Area
  • Tech
    • Lifestyle
      • Health
      • Culture
      • Food and Drink
      • Entertainment
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Events
  • SAT Jobs
  • About Us
    • Advertise with Us
    • Contact Us

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?