WINDHOEK, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Moses Ndara had high hopes for his crops after receiving some goods rains this year, but a third wave of the African migratory red locust invasion in Namibia has shattered those hopes, leaving him destitute and dependent on government aid to survive for yet another year.
"I am lost for words, this is very devastating. I have lost everything," Ndara said as he narrated how the locusts ravaged his two fields leaving nothing in sight. "Just a single locust swarm, if it comes into a farmer's field in the morning, by midday it has eaten the entire field. In most if not all cases, that field represents the entire livelihood of that farmer. This is really like a natural disaster," he said.
Ndara, who comes from one of the 22 villages in Namibia's northern Kavango East and West regions that have been ravaged by the locust swarms lives with his family and depends solely on farming.
"It will be very difficult for me to feed the 11 people I am responsible for. I see a lot of people going hungry again this year. We are hopeless, we do not know how we are going to survive," Ndara said.
Like many of the farmers, Ndara had invested quite a substantial amount of money into the two fields he owns with most of the money going to buy seeds, fertilizers and towards labor.
According to the Namibian government, the recurring drought as well as poor rainfall has resulted in over 430,000 people being food insecure and requiring urgent humanitarian action.
The agriculture ministry says the country recorded a decline in cereal production in 2019 and predicts a drop in agriculture production for 2020 and 2021 due to the locust invasion.
Agriculture ministry chief scientific officer Violet Simataa says the locusts are becoming more pronounced and covering more areas than before.
"It is becoming more pronounced at the moment, and we find ourselves in devastation. The locusts can now be found in four regions which is very concerning. We are strengthening the monitoring aspect and doing our best," she said.
Rundu rural constituency councilor where most of the current invasion was reported Paulus Mbangu said over 22 of the 40 villages are grappling with the invasion as government struggles to contain the locusts.
He fears that the government is already stretched with trying to contain the COVID-19 outbreak and that they do not have enough resources to try and contain the situation.
"Most fields are totally destroyed and the government is struggling to contain the spread. They do not have enough cars. We can only eliminate the swarms through aerial spraying. There needs to be serious planning, people can die from diseases, but they can also die from hunger," Mbangu said.
Last year, Agriculture Minister Calle Schlettwein admitted that they were facing several challenges citing that more capacity would be required to contain the outbreak.
Namibia is part of four countries in the region that are currently experiencing a locust outbreak with Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Last year, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched the Southern Africa Emergency Locust Response and Preparedness Project which is availing funds to member states to help increase the emergency response capacity and prevent the pest from causing more damage.
In Namibia, FAO has availed 300 000 Namibian dollars(20 000 U.S. dollars) in both technical and financial assistance to the Agriculture Ministry to ensure the training and deployment of an extra group of technical staff comprising of mainly extension officers to strengthen the ongoing battle against the locusts.
The country has started training defence force personnel to help with spraying.
The presence of the African migratory red locust was first reported in Feb. last year in the northeast Zambezi region but the locust swarms have since spread to three other regions. Enditem