The much-feared desert locusts finally crossover to Uganda and the government is working hard to control their spread
Desert locusts which were much feared are finally in Uganda. A swarm of these deadly desert locusts entered Uganda on Sunday from Kenya through Amudat District, Karamoja region, creating panic among the farmers, pastoralists and leaders in the region and around the country.
This was confirmed by the Prime Minister, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda at a media briefing held on Sunday evening saying the desert locusts are finally in Uganda as predicted before.
“We have known that this invasion was coming and we have done some reasonable preparations to deal with it. And I must say that His Excellency President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has been handling this to ensure that the country is reasonably prepared for this problem. Kenya has bat
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When Kenya was fighting this invasion, it was also helping Uganda and helping the region to deal with it. We have had an inter-ministerial meeting and also the technical inter-ministerial committee to deal with this situation and so far the ministerial and technical committees, h
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Rugunda says that as it was getting dark, swarms of these locusts were seen spreading to Districts of Nabiratuk and Nakapiripirit and the government is now planning to disperse pesticides to contain the locusts invasion.
“and I believe that our teams of ministry of agriculture and the UPDF got pesticides about an hour and confirmed that it was true some small swarms of the desert locusts have crossed to Uganda in the district of Amudat, and Uganda’s status right now sir is that late in the evenin
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“We don’t know how it will be in the morning and tomorrow the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandly and Fisheries is ready both manual and motorised and we shall be dispersing to the difficult grounds lead by the UPDF soldiers and we shall be spraying,” Ruggunda noted further
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The Minister of State for Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Henry Aggrey Bagiire in the same meeting said that the chemicals before spraying some of them using the demoralised spray of farms and manual are in the country.
“and in the morning we shall have the supplies airlifted to Karamoja where these insects are. His Excellency directed that we get aircraft, pesticides and the team they are already going through negotiations and tomorrow by around 10 am we shall know the status when the aircraft
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However, he said that the pesticides to be used by aircraft are not yet in Uganda but the technical team is working hard to see that they are brought in as soon as possible.
“of course, the pesticide for the aircraft is a specialised formulation, they are not yet in the country but our technical people are working so hard, they won’t take long, because the people on the ground cannot spray some areas and it requires aircraft,” Bagiire added.
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