Quelea birds have destroyed over 1,000 hectares of rice fields cultivated by 672 farmers during the 2021 cropping season in three local government areas in Yobe state.
This was disclosed by the All-Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) Chairman in Nguru, Alhaji Modu Sandari, in Damaturu on Thursday.
He said the attacks took place in Nguru, Bade, Karasuwa and Yusufari local government areas of the state.
The AAFN chief said Quella birds are long-distance migrants with a range covering well over 10 million square kilometres of Africa’s semi-arid, bush, grassland and savannah regions.
They often come in enormous numbers that destroy grain crops and, by roosting, break branches.
“It’s a pest in many different African countries, stretching from South Africa, north through countries like Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia, and all the way across the Sahel to Mauritania,” he said.
He added that the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) efforts to control quelea populations have had poor successes.
