Locusts destroy Kavango crops

SWARMS of migratory locusts invaded fields in Kavango East and West at the weekend destroying crops and other vegetation in their wake, and diminished the last hope for a good harvest.

Rundu rural constituency councillor Paulus Mbangu confirmed the incident on Sunday, saying the locusts which started from Mukwe constituency have spread to other constituencies with some migrating to other regions.

Mbangu said the locusts have been in the area for about a week.

“All constituencies in the region are now infested with locusts. They are destroying our crops and diminishing the last hope of a good harvest which has already been affected by rain. We need urgent help. This could be a catastrophe if not addressed urgently,” Mbangu said.

The executive director in the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform, Percy Misika, also confirmed the locust invasion which he said was recorded at Divundu.

Misika said he was however not aware of the recent invasion of some villages with some locust swarms being spotted in the Rundu Urban area.

Misika said the locusts spotted at Divundu were migrating from Angola “to feed on fields in the area and they fly back”.

He said the ministry has since sent a team of experts to assess the situation and start spraying pesticides in the affected areas.

The recent locust invasion in the Kavango regions followed a similar outbreak of the African migratory red locust which attacked fields in the Zambezi region from August last year, destroying more than 5 000 hectares of green fields.

The Zambezi region was the first part of the country to experience an outbreak of locusts in 2020 which later affected farmers in nine of the 10 crop producing regions in Namibia.

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