UK govt announces sh84b aid to tackle desert locusts

LOCUSTS   DISASTER

The International Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan has announced a new UK aid package of £18m (about sh84.8b) to help fight desert locusts in Africa.

The package will help to control swarms of desert locusts attacking crops across East Africa, Yemen and South-West Asia. The aid is also meant to increase pesticide spraying, monitoring and surveillance.

Uganda, which is currently battling its second wave of locusts in Moroto district, will greatly benefit from the aid as it continues to fight the pests.

On Friday, Trevelyan announced the new UK aid during a visit to British company Micron Group, on the Isle of Wight, which supplies pesticide sprayers to the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

During the visit, Trevelyan said vulnerable communities in Africa face starvation because of the threat posed by the locusts.

"British expertise is playing an important role in equipping companies with the right tools to combat the swarms and track where they will go next.

"But unless other countries also step up and act now, this crisis will spread and cause even more devastation," she said.

The new funding follows £8m (about sh37.7b) provided by the UK earlier this year to the FAO appeal.

A supercomputer funded by UK aid is also helping countries in East Africa to track the movement of insects around the continent," Trevelyan said

While announcing the UK aid to Africa, Trevelyan called on the countries expected to receive the aid to work together with the UK department for International development (DFID) to tackle the crises of desert locusts.

In a press release from the British High Commission in Kampala, Trevelyan said with the UK-aid backed funding, FAO is spraying pesticides on the ground and by air, to prevent further damage to protect crops and livelihoods.

"Food and Agriculture Organisation is working with government in Africa, to train experts to manage future outbreaks and to conduct research to better understand the swarms," the statement reads.

In addition, UK government has extended another aid of £25m (about sh118b) to support the United Nations FAO emergency appeal for the locust outbreak across Africa and Asia.

According to the statement released by British High Commission in Kampala, additional funding of £1m (4.7b) will go towards Africa Epidemiological Systems, a consortium which includes the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International maize and Wheat Improvement Centre.