Locust breeding is slow but expected to accelerate – UN agency

Locust breeding is slow now but is expected to accelerate in the months ahead, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a new bulletin on the crop-destroying pests issued today.

Small swarms were present in India and Pakistan in early December, but adults that escaped control operations reached the spring breeding areas in western Pakistan by mid-month, the agency said.

Small-scale breeding continued in western Mauritania and southern Algeria where limited ground control operations were required in both countries. So far, only small-scale breeding has occurred in the Tokar Delta on the Red Sea coast of Sudan, but breeding is expected in the period ahead on both sides of the Red Sea and could commence in northern Mauritania and Western Sahara where good rains fell this month, FAO said.

In Yemen, ecological conditions remained favourable in some places along the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden coastal plains where hoppers and adults were present.

During the forecast period, small-scale breeding will continue in Sudan’s Tokar Delta and on Yemen’s northern Tihama coast.

“Limited breeding could also occur on the Red Sea coast in southeast Egypt where good rains fell in late December and, if more rainfall occurs, on the northern coast in Eritrea and central Tihama coast in Yemen,” the agency predicted.

Hordes of locusts can precipitate food crises by devouring crops, as was the case this year in Niger, where the worst infestation in over a decade combined with drought to leave millions of people threatened with hunger and malnutrition. FAO and other partners have helped to fund and carry out locust control operations across the affected countries.