Scientists in Kisumu have warned the Ministry of Agriculture against the aerial spray of pesticides to control Quelea birds that have invaded rice farms in Ahero.

Quelea birds pose a big challenge to farmers, destroying thousands of acres of rice each harvest season.

County Executive Member for Agriculture Ken Onyango, while announcing the outbreak of the rare birds, said Nyando is the worst-hit region followed by Nyakach and Muhoroni rice schemes.

Crop scientists claim the birds are dangerous parasites, and capable of wiping out everything in the farm within hours.

Consequently, the government last week began an aerial control operation to wipe out the destructive quelea birds in the Ahero rice schemes. The government seeks to eradicate at least 5.8 million birds in nine different locations where the birds hide at night. But some environmental scientists are opposed to the killing of the birds and instead want local youths employed to scare them away. The scientists, led by Maseno lecturer Dr Raphael Kapiyo, Victor Yuko, George Adhoch, Edna Kavenje and Elly Abong’o, said the bird species is rare and should be protected.

They claimed the aerial spraying destroys the environment and habitat of other birds and animals. Chemicals will affect the ecosystem, argued Kapiyo, adding that the birds also have a life and are a scenic beauty and so shouldn’t be “killed but managed.”  “There is a need to balance between nature and the ecological ecosystem. We can’t destroy the bird species. No,” said Yuko, who works with Kenya Wildlife Service. Over the years, farmers in the Nyando rice belt have been controlling the quelea birds by chasing or scaring them away from their productive fields.

“We want youth deployed to guard the rice fields and routinely generate loud sounds to scare the birds away than opt to kill or destroy their habit,” Kapiyo argued.

Alternatively, he said, scarecrows in the form of plastics on sticks can be placed across the grain fields to scare the birds away and protect the farms.

Mass killing

Kapiyo also warned that the chemicals employed in the mass killing could be harmful to the crop and even humans.

 “How sure are we that the chemicals used in spraying will not cause other diseases or is cancerous to humans?” he posed.  Abong’o and George Agengo’, practicing environmental scientists, also questioned the safety of the chemical in the natural habitat. This concern comes amid farmers’ hue and cry that the birds posed a major threat to this year’s harvest, as they were likely to reap little or nothing from their labour.

The scientists observed that though efforts had been made in the past to prevent the birds, it appears more strategies need to be adopted in winning the war.

However, Ken Omollo, Ahero Rice Growers Association official, rejected the scientists’ calls, saying what they proposing were rudimentary methods.

“We have modern technology which can be used to contain the birds at minimal costs without necessary using the old traditional methods they posit,” Omollo noted. He claimed that modern technology and science cannot be overlooked and wondered why the environmental scientists were still stuck in the old order.

Omollo argued that thousands of rice farmers have recorded huge losses as a result of the onslaught of these rare birds and they can’t wait for the scientist’s demands.

He claimed that in the past tackling the problem has been time-consuming and labour intensive predominantly by using rudimentary control methods.