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by Sara HUSSEIN TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — The coronavirus isn’t the only plague making headlines this year — locusts are devastating crops in several parts of the world, and now scientists are discovering why the pest forms destructive swarms. On its own, a locust is fairly harmless. But so-called solitary locusts can undergo a metamorphosis, changing colour and joining together with millions of others in catastrophic clouds that strip fields. So what prompts locusts to […]
by Jonah MANDEL Agence France-Presse GOLAN HEIGHTS, Undefined (AFP) — From biblical plague to modern day protein, one Israeli firm wants to make locusts a sustainable food choice in the Holy Land and beyond. As for whether or not the insects are kosher, the answer is not so simple. At Hargol Foodtech’s farm in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a rectangular enclosure that once served as a chicken coop is filled with thousands of locusts, a […]
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AFP) — Nepal is offering farmers cash rewards for catching desert locusts to limit the damage caused by the destructive swarms that have ravaged harvests in India and Pakistan. South Asia is experiencing its worst infestation in decades, with the plague of locusts devastating agricultural heartlands and are now entering Nepal. “Our decision is aimed at encouraging people to catch the insects instead of using pesticides which might be harmful to the environment,” […]
by Marion DOUET Agence France Presse NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) — East Africa is bracing for a third outbreak of desert locusts, with billions of the destructive insects about to hatch and threaten food supplies in a region already reeling from damaging rains and the coronavirus pandemic. Spurred by favourable weather conditions, the migratory pests have descended on East Africa in record numbers since late 2019 and another wave is about to take to the skies […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — Huge swarms of desert locusts are destroying crops across western and central India, prompting authorities Tuesday to step up their response to the country’s worst plague in nearly three decades. Drones, tractors and cars have been sent out to track the voracious pests and spray them with pesticides. The locusts have already destroyed nearly 50,000 hectares (125,000 acres) of cropland. “Eight to 10 swarms, each measuring around a square kilometer […]
ADIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AFP) — Swarms of locusts in Ethiopia have damaged 200,000 hectares (half a million acres) of cropland and driven around a million people to require emergency food aid, the United Nations said Monday. The findings from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which recently concluded a joint assessment with the Ethiopian government, come as the region is bracing for new swarms that could be even more destructive. Billions of desert locusts, […]
By Michael O’HAGAN Agence France-Presse OTUKE, Uganda (AFP) — Under a warm morning sun scores of weary soldiers stare as millions of yellow locusts rise into the northern Ugandan sky, despite hours spent spraying vegetation with chemicals in an attempt to kill them. From the tops of shea trees, fields of pea plants and tall grass savanna, the insects rise in a hypnotic murmuration, disappearing quickly to wreak devastation elsewhere. The soldiers and agricultural officers will […]
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — The UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs called on the international community Monday to help East African countries affected by locust swarms, expressing his deep concern over the situation. “There are 13 million people in the affected countries who are severely food insecure now,” said Mark Lowcock during a UN press conference. “Ten million of those people are in the places affected by locusts.” Lowcock, who said he had recently […]
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AFP) — Somalia on Sunday declared a locust infestation sweeping the Horn of Africa to be a national emergency, as insects devastate food supplies in one of the poorest and most vulnerable regions in the world. “The Ministry of Agriculture… has declared a national emergency in view of the current desert locust upsurge, that poses a major threat to Somalia’s fragile food security situation,” the ministry statement read. Experts say the locust swarms […]
“Ravenous swarms” of desert locusts in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, already unprecedented in their size and destructive potential, threaten to ravage the entire East Africa subregion, the UN warned Monday. Recent weather in the region has created conditions that favour rapid reproduction of the crop-devouring insects. Left unchecked, their numbers could grow 500 times by June, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said. “The speed of the pest’s spread and the […]
NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) – Fran BLANDY Billions of locusts swarming through East Africa are the result of extreme weather swings and could prove catastrophic for a region still reeling from drought and deadly floods, experts said Friday. Dense clouds of the ravenous insects have spread from Ethiopia and Somalia into Kenya, in the region’s worse infestation in decades. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated one swarm in Kenya at around 2,400 square kilometres […]
