Tanzania mercilessly kills five million quelea birds to save rice fields

DODOMA-(MaraviPost)-Millions of quelea birds have been culled by Tanzania to prevent them from destroying rice fields, using drones and planes to monitor commercial farms, the country’s plants and pesticides watchdog said Wednesday.

The Tanzania Plant Health and Pesticides Authority (TPHPA), responsible for controlling desert locusts, killed five million quelea birds in the northern region of Manyara last week where about 1,000 acres of commercial crops were under threat.“We killed swarms of five million destructive birds and now we are monitoring other zones,” Joseph Ndunguru, acting director general of TPHPA, told AFP by phone.

The tiny red-beaked birds which move in large flocks ravage crops, with invasions generally occurring during the onset of the dry season in September and October.

Ndunguru said the agency targeted the swarms with aerial spraying over four days, killing them before they damaged the paddy fields in northern Tanzania.

With governments across Africa initiating aerial and ground efforts to contain Quelea birds in the past, they are thought to be the most numerous bird species in the world.

Source: www.expressiveinfo.com

Lloyd M’bwana

I’m a Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resource (LUANAR)’s Environmental Science graduate (Malawi) and UK’s ICM Journalism and Media studies scholar. Also University of Malawi (UNIMA) Library Science Scholar. I have been The Malawi Country Manager and duty editor for the Maravi Post since 2019. My duty editor’s job is to ensure that the news is covered properly, that it is delivered on time, and that it is created to the standards set out in the editorial guidelines of the Maravi Post.