KAMPALA – Hon. Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja, the Minister for Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) has informed the general public that Uganda is not among the countries under attack from the locusts that are affecting crop production in Somalia and other countries in the region.
Speaking to media in Kampala on Tuesday, January 7, 2020, the minister said that Uganda’s strategy to keep out such pests is channeled through the Department of Crop Protection.
Ssempijja also revealed that Uganda benefits from the country’s membership to the Desert Locust Control Organization for Eastern Africa (DLCO-EA) which is a regional pest and vector management organization that has its headquarters in Ethiopia.
DLCO-EA’s mandate is to promote control operations and forecast techniques against upsurges and plagues of the desert locust, as well as of the larvae of the African armyworm moth, the grain-eating birds and the tsetse fly that transmits the deadly human sleeping sickness.
While Uganda is currently Locust-free, the Minister has urged farmers to follow the appropriate pest control measures provided through the extension system.