Apart from the impact of the birds’ voracious appetite on the precarious economies of the harvesters, there is a regional food crisis resulting from rising prices due to the conflict in Eastern Europe and prolonged droughts in East Africa.

In 2022 alone, the despicable peak year of the Covid-19 pandemic, farmers in Kisumu reported losses of 50 million dollars, a sum that, for them, threatens their economic survival.

According to official statistics, the latest rice harvest in the Kano area was 5,000 metric tons, three quarters of which ended up in the stomachs of the queleas, which prevent the farmers from paying their debts to banks. In view of the seriousness of the crisis, authorities announced a mass extermination campaign consisting of spraying the area with products that are toxic to the birds in the hope of recovering the balance between humans and wildlife and, incidentally, the economy of the area and the rice supply to the domestic market.

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