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ROME, ITALY – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is making progress in fighting desert locusts in East Africa and Yemen, but the organization’s director warns that a crisis still persists.
QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General, said that more needs to be done to avoid a food security crisis, as the ongoing rainy season not only provides livelihoods for farmers, but also favorable conditions for the reproduction of lobsters.
The UN agency has continued to monitor the locust situation despite the global coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) with the publication of a progress report on the locust control campaign.
Preliminary FAO estimates indicate that 720,000 tons of cereal have been saved in 10 countries by preventing the spread of desert locusts and damage to many more hectares.
“Our achievements have been significant; But the battle is long and not over yet, “Qu said.” More people are at risk of losing their livelihoods and worsening food security in the coming months. “
While strips of treated land are now relatively free of the pest, the first wave of swarms has spawned and a second wave of locusts will transition in June, taking flight at a time when many farmers in East Africa are preparing to harvest your crops.
According to the FAO, desert locust is considered the world’s most destructive migratory pest, and a single swarm covering one square kilometer can contain up to 80 million locusts.
The current increase is a concern in the broader region of East Africa, with recently released forecasts from the Global Report on Food Crises indicating that more than 25 million people will face acute food insecurity in the region in the second half of 2020. In Yemen, where lobsters have been breeding in hard-to-reach interior areas, another 17 million people are food insecure. But those estimates were made before the impact of COVID-19 in a region of acute food insecurity.
“We can and must protect vulnerable people from the impact of multiple crises: conflicts, extreme weather conditions, desert locusts and COVID-19, which threaten to cause further dramatic deterioration in their food security,” Qu said. “To do this, we need to further intensify our efforts and focus not only on controls, but also on supporting the livelihoods of farmers and herders so that they can overcome this.”
Since the FAO launched its response to the desert locust in January, its appeal has been funded with $ 130 million. However, funding has focused on locust control activities and much more support is needed for livelihood support activities.
While locust control and surveillance operations are led by national governments, FAO is providing support in the form of pesticides, biopesticides, equipment, aircraft, and training.
So far this year, more than 365,000 hectares have been controlled in the 10 countries covered by the FAO call.
While governments continue to expand efforts to control the current increase with FAO support, conditions remain favorable for lobster breeding and will require further efforts. The revised version of the appeal to be launched in the coming weeks is also expected to seek resources for Iran and Pakistan, which are also dealing with locust infestations.
