Access to new resource related to emergency response/disaster recovery added to PMWL
Resource provided by Daisy Ogutu
12 March 2020 – Kisumu, Kenya – Access to a new resource has been added to the PM World Library (PMWL) related to emergency response/disaster recovery. The new resource is titled: Kenya’s economy weakened by the scourge of locusts, climate change, by Claudia Lacave published in The Africa Report in February.
The last few months in East Africa resemble a Biblical scene: intense drought, torrential rains and now a plague of locusts. The insects have come in billions and are now devouring crops and threatening the food security of a population in a region already weakened by extreme climate events and even armed conflicts. Ethiopia, Somalia and now Kenya are hardest hit as people can be seen chasing the insects away with sticks or banging on metal sheets.
Agriculture is a key sector in Kenya that accounted for 26% of the country’s GDP in 2019. In a single day, a swarm can eat food equivalent to that of 35,000 people. It now threatens food security in the entire sub-region. The Kenyan government has reverted to spraying fenitrothion, which is claimed to be an effective chemical. Several organisation’s point out to issues of carcinogenic risks and the chemical’s possible effect on the human reproductive system. The locusts are said to be edible and very nutritious and so they would rather be harvested for animal or human consumption. The chemical spraying is the way the Kenyan government has reacted but the truth is that this method is still debatable.
To access this new resource, go to the Solving Global Problems section of the library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/solving-global-problems click on general disaster response information, scroll down to resource. Free to access, but please consider registering.
This new resource provided through the PMWL university research internship program; to learn more, click here
