By Giulia Paravicini
By Giulia Paravicini
JIGJIGA, Ethiopia, Jan 17 (Reuters) – Ethiopian farmer Ahmed Ibrahim batted empty water bottles at a swarm of desert locusts the scale of his palms that had been devouring his area of khat – the mildly narcotic leaf that’s his household’s most important supply of earnings.
“Now we have nothing else to promote on the market. How will I feed my eight kids?” he requested helplessly, shouting over the sound of the bugs as his kids chased them with a yellow headband and a stick.
The locusts devoured Ibrahim’s small grazing plot as his donkeys brayed anxiously and goats scrambled to eat the remaining foliage.
Scenes like this are taking place throughout the Horn of Africa, the place swarms of desert locusts have broken tens of hundreds of hectares to this point, the Meals and Agriculture Group (FAO) stated.
“These infestations characterize a significant menace to meals safety in Kenya and throughout your complete Horn of Africa, which is already reeling…