The Kebbi State Government has appealed to the Federal Government of Nigeria to assist it in combating the menace of Quelea birds to protect farm produce from destruction.
The Deputy Governor of the state, Alhaji Samaila Yomber, made the call in a statement signed by the director of Research and Documentation in his office, Alhaji Aliyu jajirma, on Sunday, February 19, in Birnin Kebbi.
Yomber said the state was experiencing increase in the invasion of Quelea birds annually, and that it had become a threat to food security in the area.
He said extensive farmlands had been under attack by the seed-eating nomadic birds, stressing that assistance from the federal government would ensure a bumper harvest during the dry and wet farming season.
According to the deputy governor, the rate of destruction of farm produce by the birds has been on the increase annually – between 10 percent and 35 per cent in 2015 alone.
The birds are capable of destroying a hectare of farmland within an hour.
Fighting the infestation is capital intensive, according to the governor, an expense the state government alone cannot provide, he said.
(Source: NAN).