(IRIN) – Locust swarms have migrated from northwestern Somalia and spread to seven regions of Ethiopia, but have so far caused minimal damage to crops, an official has said.

“About a dozen swarms have entered the country,” Kassahun Yitaferu, an entomologist at the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said. “These swarms can cover a small plot of 50 hectares to large areas of 26 square kilometers.”

Six regions – Somali, Afar, Harari, Oromia, Amhara, Tigray – and the Dire Dawa administrative council area are affected.

“The swarms are not breeding in Ethiopia,” Kassahun said. Instead, they matured in northern Somaliland before moving into Ethiopia, where they were first reported in the Somali Region, eastern Ethiopia, in April.

Since 10 June, no new swarms have been reported entering Ethiopia, and those in the country have broken up into smaller groups and spread to a number of areas.

“There is no strong locust survey and control operation in Somalia,” Kassahun added. “Those locusts which exist in solitary form in that part of the Horn of Africa breed without restraint when environmental conditions become favorable.”

Abdurahaman Abdullahi, senior research officer at the regional Desert Locust Control Organization for Eastern Africa (DLCO), said lack of systems in northwestern Somalia had allowed the locust infestation to spread undetected.

DLCO dispatches help

DLCO, he said, had dispatched experts and chemicals to the affected areas, together with a cropduster (from Nairobi) on 12 April. Since detecting the swarms in Ethiopia, it had deployed an aircraft in Dire Dawa to spray the affected areas.

“Right now the swarms moving to eastern Ethiopia are fully controlled,” Kassahun said. “But those which escaped into the South Gonder area and a few in the North Shewa area are not yet fully controlled.”

Locusts have three breeding seasons: spring, summer and winter. North Gonder and Western Tigray are areas that receive summer rains from July to September. It is feared that a locust spread in these areas during the summer season, could affect crop production.

“If the locusts breed in the summer, most of the crops, including sesame, will be attacked,” Kassahun said. “We are afraid a few groups may possibly go to summer breeding areas in northwestern Ethiopia, North Gonder and Western Tigray.”

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