By Charles Katabalawa
25th Feb 2020
The Minister for Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja has warned that government stands to lose over 218 million US dollars if desert locusts are not properly handled.
Ssempijja told the media today in Kampala that according to information from Kenya younger locusts have already hatched in millions a signal that calls for more efforts to contain the locusts before they attack crops like maize, cotton and simsim among others that fetch high revenue from export.
One ton of desert locusts is highly destructive agricultural pests and can eat an equivalent of food meant to feed 2,500 people within a space of 12 to 24hours.
According to vegetation experts, these fast-breeding locusts can ravage no less than 200 tones of vegetation in a space of 24 hours.
However, Ssempijja discloses that cabinet has already approved another Ugx16 billion on top of the 15bnshs and 7bnshs that were released earlier in several phases to help in paying the workers, buying more pesticides, educating the workers and spraying the locusts among others.
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