An Extraordinary Locust
Invasion in North And West Africa
Delphine Barrais, FRANCE
Billions of locusts have been sweeping
through North and West Africa since September 2003, devouring everything in their path.
This extraordinary invasion has been triggered by heavy rainfall and a lack of preventive
action. The African countries hit by the swarming insects have not seen such a phenomenon
for fifteen years. The French Agricultural Research Center for international Development
(CIRD), which had been monitoring the outbreak, has been assigned to undertake emergency
missions in Mauritania, Senegal and Niger. At the same time, it is conducting a long-term
assistance mission
The North and West African countries have not
seen such an invasion of desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) in fifteen years. Although
harmless in this form, they are formidable when they become gregarious due to their
voracity, mobility and the huge size of the swarms (since the transition form the
Solitaries to the gregarious phase is conditioned by the number of locusts per swarm)
One small fraction of an average swarm
represent one tone of locusts. Given that one locust eats its weight in food (2 g) daily,
an average swarm munches its way through as much as 2,500 people eat every day . Swarm
sizes can very form one square kilometer to several hundred square kilometer and can
travel over one hundred kilometer per day. I some of the countries, upto40% of grazing
land and 10%of leguminous croups have already been devastated. "The first sign of the
infestation appeared in September 2003," says Michel Loco , head of the locust
research unit at the French Agricultural Research center for international Development
(CRID) . Abundant, well-spread and steady rainfall gave the insects ideal breeding
conditions in Mali, Niger and Mauritania. Their numbers shot up and they made the change
from the Solitaries to the gregarious phase and started to migrate towards North Africa,
where the climate condition were again propitious to their breeding . They than swarmed
back to the Shelia countries in late Jun-early July 2004, sweeping through Mauritania,
Senegal, Mali and then Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso. Some swarms even reached the Cape
Verde islands.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) reports that three to four million hectares have now been overrun. Mauritania, the
hardest hit country, is thought to have lost 50% of its Cereal production (due to both the
locust infestation and the drought). The consequences of these invasions are catastrophic
and could raise fears of famine . As Michel Lector points out, "The insects obviously
have a direct effect in that they attack all the crops and compete with the livestock. Yet
there are indirect effects. For example, the locusts risk pushes up farmers' insurance
premiums and inhabitants leave their villages because they can't plant their croups. They
have nowhere to turn.
In early August, the agricultural ministers
of five West African countries (Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Chad) and four North
African countries (Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia) adopted an emergency plan to
combat the desert locusts. The North African countries sent arcaded control teams and
equipment to the Sakhalin countries under siege. The participants also launched a formal
appeal for international solidarity. The FAO has already received $52.4 million to which
it has added $6 million of its own founds reserved for locusts infestation. A number of
donors have also pledged a total of $15 Million. The organization has over two million
liters of pesticide, half of which already been delivered.
At the same time, long-term French assistance
is being set up to develop strategic tools to prevent and manages locust crises and
improve knowledge of where prevarication occurs (areas where swarming behavior starts). A
number of meetings have already been held and due to take place in the coming month,
attended by the main African countries and the donors. CIRAD 's expertise is playing a
driving role in this project. You need take a long –term approach to preventive
action " explains Michel Lecoq."The frequency of these recurrent locust
infestations has already dropped in Africa since the 1960s", continuous the
researcher, "but there is still more to be done." He believes that any new
strategy should provide conditions for better governance of preventive action by
establishing long-term cooperation between the States concerned and the donor community.
"This is probably the only way to keep the prevention mechanism active and up to
par," says the researcher. |
