The locusts are coming

The  Federal Government has raised an alarm that swarms of locusts, grasshoppers and quelea birds are about to swamp the northern parts of this country, just when our expectations have been raised for a bumper harvest this year. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Chief Audu Ogbeh sounded the alarm at a brainstorming session he […]

The  Federal Government has raised an alarm that swarms of locusts, grasshoppers and quelea birds are about to swamp the northern parts of this country, just when our expectations have been raised for a bumper harvest this year. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Chief Audu Ogbeh sounded the alarm at a brainstorming session he had last week with  representatives of twenty one state governments on strategies to restrict the invasion.
Ogbeh said, “There is warning we have received that grasshoppers and quelea birds are massing up in Niger Republic from where they normally attack us in Nigeria.  As you know and through efforts we’re making, especially in the northern part, we also know how dangerous locusts and quelea birds can be. If they arrive, within hours and days they will wipe out everything that our farmers have put on the field.  Now the price of food is very high today and Nigerians are very troubled. They speak on phones, television and write in newspapers that they are hungry and they want the situation resolved.”
The minister however assured that “with the efforts in the states, we’re approaching the promised land. In another cropping season after this harvest, we shouldn’t have severe problem of food.  We may have those problems if we allow the locusts to arrive here, so the reason for this meeting is for us to design a strategy very quickly to attack the locusts not even within Nigerian territory but in Niger Republic and for us to be on the lookout.”
The problem of locusts, grasshoppers, quelea birds and sometimes rodents harvesting the fruits of our farmers’ hard labour has been with us for generations; all the more reason why the authorities should be much better prepared to tackle it. Prior to Ogbe’s warning, some farmers in northern Nigeria had already reported attacks by quelea birds on their farms. The swarm already in the country may not be as large as the incoming destroyers, but they are destroyers nonetheless.  Some of the farmers had to use nets to cover their crops and protect them from the birds.  This solution is hardly adequate and it increases the cost of production multiple times. 
Back in the 1980s there was an agreement among the countries of the entire Sahelian belt of Africa to act together to combat the menace of locusts and quelea birds. The problem requires a region-wide solution and early warning systems, since the pests do not recognise international boundaries. But once the swarms start, the chief solution is to attack them with pest control aircraft.   It’s comforting that the Nigerian government is partnering with Niger Republic, including using their aircrafts to combat the menace.  The surprising thing of course is that while our poorer neighbours have their own airplanes for such purposes, the Nigerian government does not appear to have any right now. Pest Control Departments of the federal as well as state ministries of agriculture used to have these aircraft but they have apparently been allowed to rot away.
The government should use this impending outbreak to notch up its seriousness with pest control matters.  If we pay lip service to this, the birds and the insects would make nonsense of the handwork of our farmers. Given the high prices of food in the country, no one needs to be told what this eventuality means.  Among them is the decimation of the main focus area of the Federal Government, namely agriculture.  If their crops get destroyed, farmers would be discouraged from producing next season.  But the most devastating outcome would be the shortage of food this would engender.
We propose that the government should have a standing intervention process, including the protocols and tools that can be deployed immediately the need arises. It is much like maintaining the Fire Service, this time with a much bigger potential damage. In between swarms, pest control authorities should also intensify research to identify the reserve locations of locusts and quelea birds and learn to deal with them before environmental conditions trigger the irregular swarms.