[ad_1]
A second wave of desert locust swarms has started to hit an already badly affected East Africa in recent weeks after heavy rains and a late cyclone triggered a new round of breeding, with swarms invading Kenya and southern Africa. Ethiopia, according to Food and Agriculture. Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
The first wave of locusts was reported in East Africa in January last year, when heavy rains triggered a large-scale breeding round, according to FAO.
Climatic conditions continued to be favorable for lobster reproduction and growth throughout the year, fueling locust outbreaks from East Africa to Iran.
“The last time Africa saw a locust increase approaching this scale, in the Sahel, it took two years and more than $ 500 million to control. This increase was even greater, but East Africa is ready to end it, as long as governments can keep those planes flying, “said Laurent Thomas, FAO Deputy Director-General. “The locust fighting machine that has been assembled in East Africa is now fully equipped and capable of containing, suppressing and we believe, eventually ending this record increase.”
Dominique Burgeon, FAO’s director of emergencies and resilience, said that more than three million tonnes of cereals, valued at approximately $ 940 million, were protected thanks to surveillance and response efforts last year, according to the UN. That is enough to feed 21 million people for one year.
Despite optimism, Thomas emphasized that the region needed $ 38.8 million in additional funding to continue fighting the outbreaks through June.
FAO expects a new generation of locusts to emerge in early April amid the seasonal rains and planting season in Kenya and southern Ethiopia. Desert locusts have also been reported to breed off the coast of Somalia in the Gulf of Aden.
An FAO desert locust bulletin in late December predicted that the swarms would spread across southern Ethiopia, Kenya and the coast of Saudi Arabia, with limited breeding occurring in Sudan, Eritrea, Egypt and Yemen. With regard to Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, the forecast indicated that “major events are unlikely to occur.”
The Famine Early Warning System stated that various parts of the Horn of Africa are facing food crises caused in part by locust swarms and that the crises will worsen in the coming months, especially in Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen, according to NPR.
All of this comes as the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect the global economy and the availability of food for many people.
Huge swarms on scales not seen in decades were reported last year in East Africa, parts of the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and India, with some swarms reaching up to 60 kilometers and covering up to 240,000 hectares of land, an area the size of Luxembourg, according to FAO.
One square kilometer. A swarm of locusts can eat the same amount of food in a day as 35,000 people, according to the FAO. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s lobster forecast expert Keith Cressman explained that a swarm of locusts that enters a field in the morning can eat the entire field by noon. Insects can travel up to 93 miles per day.
[ad_2]
