Kenya starts aerial campaign to eradicate quelea birds

The government has started an aerial bird control operation to eradicate the destructive quelea birds that have invaded rice farms in Kisumu County.

The Ministry of Agriculture is trying to eradicate 5.8 million birds in nine different locations where the birds hide at night.

Two rice schemes are worst affected by the invasion by the birds, according to Kisumu County Executive Member for Agriculture Ken Onyango.

Our farmers have suffered massive losses as 300 acres of rice fields have been destroyed by the birds with 2,000 more acres under threat, he said.

After receiving reports from field officers, the county government sought help from the national government and a team from Kilimo House arrived at the lakeside city armed with equipment and chemicals.

The Department of Crop Protection and Safety from Nairobi was dispatched to Kisumu today to start a massive campaign to fight the birds through spraying, said Mr Onyango.

Nyakach and Muhoroni followed Nyando as the worst-hit region.

Most birds have migrated to Okana Irrigation scheme from Kisumu East Sub-County, according to a report from Kisumu County.

The operation will cover the National Irrigation Authority area in Muhoroni, Awach Kano, Ogange, Amboo, Okana, Ogongo, Kudho, Haro and Alara.

The crop protection unit said the invasion was caused by partial control by the crop protection unit, but they said that the last crop protection was done in March 2022.

He said that the unsynchronised cropping calendar in the rice schemes and the growing of sorghum in the area caused the surge of birds.

An average quelea bird eats around 10 grams of grain per day and a flock of 2 million birds can eat as much as 20 tons of grain in a single day.