Urgent action needed to avert food crisis

Farmers in Lolupe, Turkana County harvest vegetables at an irrigation farm in July 2019. FAO report shows that the current situation in the country remains extremely worrying, with widespread locusts breeding reported in western region. [File, Standard]

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the government is focused on containing the health threat. While we reckon with the virus, an equally dangerous plague looms: crop-decimating locust swarms in the Horn of Africa, now spread over 24 counties in Kenya, threaten our precarious food security situation.