Damage
Wheat farmers in Nakuru are counting losses after a flock of quelea birds descended on their crop causing a huge damage on the farms. The voracious tiny bird that normally appears on robust wheat, rice and sorghum plantations is said to consume an average of 10 grams of grain daily.
In Rongai Sub-County, farmers are staring at an average loss of 80,000 kilograms of wheat per day, according to Nakuru county government which is working with growers to control the menace.
County Executive Member (CECM) in charge of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Mr. Leonard Bor called upon Rongai residents to report roosting sites for the destructive birds and disclosed that extensive damage had been reported on a large-scale wheat farm after an invasion was reported at Madrugada farm in Rongai sub-county.
Farmers are now said to be using rudimentary technologies to curb the birds, which include mounting scare crows in the fields while others have turned to catapults and slings. Most of the farmers visit the farms at dawn when the crop is most vulnerable and use pebbles to scare away the birds which is an energy draining exercise that yields little results.
Following the invasion, farmers have expressed concern that the ravenous birds, which are in their thousands, may end up destroying their crop if urgent measures are not taken to curb them. Bor has however assured farmers that a team was already on the ground to map and identify where the birds roost out adding that surveillance was being carried out to inform the appropriate control method to be employed.
The CECM stated that chemicals used to flush out the birds might endanger the lives of livestock and urged the farmers who reside in identified areas to move their livestock to the neighbourhood for the time being. Bor observed that Nakuru County was one of the leading counties in wheat production, and therefore Governor Susan Kihika’s administration was conducting an operation to help farmers avoid counting losses.
The CECM said the officials from the department were still engaging the community on the ground to identify more roosting sites and sensitize them to the effects of the chemicals. Nakuru County is known for wheat production as it is the second largest producing county in the country after Trans Nzoia, with Uasin Gishu and Laikipia coming third and fourth.
However, invasion by quelea birds into the wheat farms has been giving the farmers sleepless nights as the birds could destroy over 40 per cent of the expected harvest. The CECM confirmed that the birds were a constant threat to the large- and small-scale wheat farmers in the county.
“If nothing is done, the birds can ruin more than 40 per cent of the expected harvest,” said Bor
He revealed that the population of quelea birds in the county was over 10 million, which posed a big threat to the farmers owing to the fact that the birds are long-distance migrants, with a capability of covering a range of over 10 million square kilometers and a colony of 1 million to 5 million birds could consume 50 tons of grain a day.
The County Executive Committee Member explained that one quelea roost (colony) contains two to three million Quelea Birds. Some farmers whose yield were affected by the quelea menace have asked the county government to take an early action ahead of the upcoming planting season as the birds love the wheat’s milk bud at the soft dough stage.
Paul Mwaura, a wheat farmer at Tabot village in Visoi ward, said once the birds attacked the buds, the young wheat plants dried out. He said in some seasons, the colonies raid the wheat farms as early as 6am until 5pm forcing the farmers to keep vigilant in their farms to keep chasing them.
Mwaura observed that so far, the leasing foreign wheat farmers were the only ones able to afford to spray their own fields while the small-scale farmers sometime watched as their fields were completely destroyed by the birds. Other crops invaded by Quelea Birds are barley, millet, oats, rice and sorghum. The birds do not attack maize crops as their beaks are too small to cope with the large seeds.
The invasion of the birds is a threat to food production as the country stares at a food shortage crisis following changing rainfall patterns and invasion of desert locusts. According to scientists, the Horn of Africa has in recent years been experiencing a persistent drought. This has resulted in a decline in the amount of native grass that provides the main food source for queleas.
As a consequence, these birds are increasingly foraging on grain fields, endangering thousands of hectares of grains. As per the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), a single quelea has the capacity to consume up to 10 grams of grain daily. In Africa, the spraying of fenthion, an organophosphate pesticide, has been the method of choice in battling pests. However, the chemical is toxic to humans and non-target organisms, according to researchers.