Desert Locust in Kenya - Impact on Pastoralists in Turkana County VNR

The livelihood of agro-pastoralists in Turkana County in Kenya has been greatly affected by the ongoing desert locust infestation. Crops were damaged in areas where the ravenous agricultural pest was present.

In addition to controlling the desert locust infestation, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is responding to the impacts of the locusts on the livelihoods of affected communities to ensure they get fully back on their feet.

In Turkana County, people’s livestock are competing for pasture with billions of hungry hoppers. As a result, goats are not producing enough milk to feed their families.

“After the flying locust left, we saw the hopper bands emerging. They are eating all the grass and our goats give less milk now”, says Anna Amurai, pastoralist and mother of seven, who adds: “I used to get eight jugs of goat milk, now just one.”

Pastoralists are concerned there would not be enough food for their livestock as the dry season is upcoming.

Moses Areng, pastor and member of Lorgum Livestock Association explains: “If it doesn’t rain for more than one month, and the hopper bands have finished all the pasture available, our cattle will shrivel and die from hunger and disease.”

In June, the agro-pastoralist community in Turkana County has seen around 15 and 20 percent of sorghum crops damaged or with a reduction of the yield.

“To this people, the impact it has created is food insecurity.” affirms Silali Turkwell, Turkana Central sub-county Agriculture Officer, he also says: “after they [the desert locust] complete the crop, they will go to the forage, the trees. And, if they went to the trees, it’s food insecurity to the human and the livestock.”

In Kenya, FAO has trained hundreds National Youth Service (NYS) trainees as part of its action plan to boost the Government’s surveillance and control of the worst desert locust invasion the country has seen in 70 years.

From the beginning of January up until early August 2020 over 600,000 hectares have been controlled across the East Africa region.

So far, over a half a trillion locusts have been killed in the entire region, FAO estimates, and so were prevented from damaging crops and rangelands.

That is a success, but the threat of possible re-infestation towards the end of the year will call for careful and continued surveillance, warns FAO.

There is still a need to build up monitoring and response capacity across the whole region, to be ready if a renewed upsurge occurs.

From June to December many more people in East Africa could be severely food insecure due to desert locusts alone. But now with COVID-19 as an additional factor and the pre-existing caseload of people already food insecure prior to the upsurge, the situation in the region is quite dramatic.

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LOCATIONS: Turkana County, Kenya
DATE: June 2020
SOUND: Natural / English / Turkana / Swahili
LENGHT: 5’22”
SOURCE: FAO
RESTRICTION: Please give on-screen credit to FAO

SHOTLIST

1. Shot from inside a moving car through front window showing trees and road being lit up in the dark as car moving forward
2. Shot from inside a moving car showing trees and sun at dawn
3. Shadow of a moving car casted on the ground
4. Close up of car wheel moving
5. Wide shot of desert locust hoppers moving on the ground
6. SOUNDBITE (Turkana) Anna Amurai, mother of seven: “Our elders used to talk about desert locusts but this is the first time I see them.”
7. Pull focus from a hut to a tree with hoppers roosting
8. A goat grazing, hoppers moving on the ground in the foreground
9. SOUNDBITE (Turkana) Anna Amurai, mother of seven: “After the flying locust left, we saw the hopper bands emerging. They are eating all the grass and our goats give less milk now.”
10. Close up face of a boy
11. A boy milking a goat
12. SOUNDBITE (Turkana) Anna Amurai, mother of seven: “I used to get eight jugs of goat milk, now just one.”
13. Wide shot of a boy milking goats
14. Boy drinking raw milk straight from the goat
15. SOUNDBITE (Turkana) Anna Amurai, mother of seven: “We now collect the milk for several days, then we add water, so that we can make enough tea for all the children”.
16. Wide shot of children and a boy sitting on the ground
17. Back shot of Moses Areng (in white shirt) walking and pointing at desert locust hoppers on the ground, pan to hoppers on the ground
18. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Moses Areng, pastor and member of Lorgum Livestock Association: “I don’t know why the desert locusts came, only God knows. If they could talk, they would tell us that they are in Turkana because they were born here, with nowhere to go, meaning they would continue to live and breed here.”
19. Close up of hoppers roosting on a tree
20. Moses Areng looking at hoppers on a tree
21. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Moses Areng, pastor and member of Lorgum Livestock Association: “If the desert locusts would disappear now, and God gives us a little bit of rain, we know that the pasture will regenerate. But if it doesn’t rain for more than one month, and the hopper bands have finished all the pasture available, our cattle will shrivel and die from hunger and disease.”
22. Various of hoppers eating crops
23. Pastoralists trying to disperse locusts in a field
24. SOUNDBITE (English) Silali Turkwell, Turkana Central sub-county Agriculture Officer: “It was dark when they came in, people were crying all over, helter skelter running all over, because they thought it was something never seen before.”
25. Various close up of hoppers eating crops
26. SOUNDBITE (English) Silali Turkwell, Turkana Central sub-county Agriculture Officer: “And then the eggs hatched, after hatching, the nymphs started hopping, hopping to the field and now, here they are. These are the products of the nymphs, they are eating everything on the ground, everything.
27. A pastoralist trying to disperse locusts in a field
28. Silali Turkwell (in hat) and pastoralist walking and talking in a cultivated field
29. SOUNDBITE (English) Silali Turkwell, Turkana Central sub-county Agriculture Officer: “To this people, the impact it has created is food insecurity. After they complete the crop, they will go to the forage, the trees. And, if they went to the trees, it’s food insecurity to the human and the livestock. And if the livestock goes, the next person is the human who will go.”
30. Silali Turkwell (in hat) and farmers checking the damages caused by the hopper bands
31. Close up on a hand checking leaves eaten by hoppers
32. SOUNDBITE (English) Silali Turkwell, Turkana Central sub-county Agriculture Officer: “My thinking is that if we could get well-wishers up with our government, because at the farmer level, they can’t make it. We get aid from well-wishers, with our national government, county government and see how we can eradicate this pest because it’s a threat to humanity, yes a threat to humanity.”
33. Various of a boy grazing goats
34. Close up on a boy watching on camera



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