KAMPALA, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Uganda would use available methods to fight the invasion of desert locusts, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said Sunday.
The military working with the locals will fight off the swarms of locusts that are crossing into the country from neighboring Kenya, using hand spray pumps instead of waiting for spray aircraft, Museveni said in a televised address.
The government has studied the movement of the locusts, he said, noting that the military would spray them even at night when the migratory insects cannot fly.
The president explained the insects cannot fly when it is cold or at night, and this is the appropriate time to kill them.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, over 2,000 soldiers and 835 civilian personnel, including agriculture extension workers, have been trained and deployed to contain the locusts.
Desert Locust Control Organization for Eastern Africa and Bulgaria have provided aircraft to Uganda for spraying the locusts. However, the agriculture ministry said it has not yet received chemicals it ordered for the aircraft to spray the locusts.
Uganda is tackling a second wave of locust swarms that entered the country on April 3 through the northern district of Amudat and spread inland into four districts by April 6.
"Unlike previous swarms, these swarms comprise immature adult desert locusts recently hatched in Kenya. The immature adult desert locust is at a growth stage that still feeds heavily and therefore has the potential to destroy vegetation wherever they go," the ministry said in a statement issued recently.
In the first wave, the country recorded nine swarms of locusts in the northern and eastern regions. Enditem
