2020 – Posted in: RSTV – Tags: Asia and Africa, Ethiopia and Somalia, India, Iran, Kenya, LOCUST ATTACK, Oman and Yemen, Pakistan, Red Sea region, Saudi Arabia, swarms, the Horn of Africa

LOCUST ATTACK

IN NEWS

In recent weeks, swarms of locusts have attacked crops in more than a dozen countries in Asia and Africa.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has currently identified three critical points of threat of locust activity, where the situation has been described as “extremely alarming”: the Horn of Africa, the Red Sea region and south- west Asia.

The Horn of Africa has been described as the most affected area, where FAO said there is “an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods and subsistence”.

Swarms of Locusts from Ethiopia and Somalia have travelled south to Kenya and 14 other countries on the continent. In the Red Sea region, Locusts have struck in Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen. In southwest Asia, swarms of locusts have caused damage in Iran, India and Pakistan. Pakistan and Somalia have recently declared locust emergencies.

Locust

A locust is a large, mainly tropical, grasshopper with powerful flying powers. They differ from ordinary grasshoppers in their ability to change behaviour and form swarms that can migrate over long distances.
Locusts are generally seen during the months of June and July, as the insects are active from summer to the rainy season.
Locusts have a great capacity to multiply, to form groups, to migrate over relatively large distances (they can fly up to 150 km per day). They can reproduce quickly and increase about 20 times in three months.
Threat to vegetation: Adult Locusts can eat their own weight each day, about two grams of fresh vegetation per day. A very small swarm eats up to 35,000 people in one day, posing a devastating threat to crops and food security.
FAO provides information on the general locust situation to the world community and provides timely warnings and forecasts to countries at risk of invasion.
The Locust Warning Organization (LWO), Quarantine and Storage Directorate for Phytosanitary Protection, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, is responsible for monitoring, studying and of the Desert Locust control in the zones, scheduled deserts, mainly in the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat.

What is the locust attack?

The most disastrous of all locust species is the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria).

When desert Locusts meet, their nervous system releases serotonin, which causes them to attract each other.
Desert Locusts live in the desert areas between West Africa and India during calm periods.
Three pests, Italian locust, Moroccan locust and Asian migratory locust, threaten food security and livelihoods in the Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA), also in adjacent regions of northern Afghanistan and the southern Russian Federation.
Locusts have a great capacity to multiply, to form groups, to migrate over relatively large distances (they can fly up to 150 km per day).
If ecological conditions become favorable, they reproduce quickly and increase about 20 times in three months.
The first bands of gregarious larvae are called “buds”.
When these meet in larger groups, the event is known as an “increase”.
The continuous agglomerations of regional increases that originate from several completely separate breeding sites are called “pests”.

Is this the first time that locust has stayed in India after October-November?

This happened for the first time since the 1950s. The preceding decades were marked by terrible and long periods of locust plague (when there is a swarm attack for more than two consecutive years, we speak plague). This time they stayed a long time because of the good monsoon.

In 2019, the monsoon started six weeks in advance (first week of July) in western India, especially in areas infested with locusts. It also lasted another month, until November, instead of the usual September / October. The prolonged rains created excellent breeding conditions for the locust, while producing natural vegetation which it could feed on longer.

The locust arrived in Jaisalmer in late May. Rajasthan has experienced three generations of reproduction instead of the normal generation. The first two generations caused a lot of damage to crops. The third generation is now weak.

Its impact on agriculture

Swarms of Locusts devastate crops and cause major agricultural damage that causes famine and hunger. Although they are present in many parts of the world, Locusts are more destructive to Africa’s livelihoods.
Desert Locust pests can threaten the economic livelihoods of one-tenth of the world’s humans. Each locust can eat its weight in plants every day, so a swarm of this size would eat 423 million pounds of plants every day.
Locusts devour leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, bark and growth points, and also destroy plants by weight while descending in large quantities.
Locusts damage crops worth Rs 10 crore during the 1926-1931 plague cycle. During the locust plague cycles of 1940-46 and 1949-55, damage was estimated at 2 crore Rs each and 50 lakh Rs during the locust plague cycle of 1959-62.

Suggestive measures to attack the locust attack

In the past, management strategies have generally focused on burning tires to create an exclusion zone, trap them in nets or dig trenches. However, these local measures will prevent Locusts from reaching a particular area, but there is little they can do to stop the progression of the swarm.
Currently, the most commonly used control is insecticide. Sprayed from land or air vehicles, entire swarms can be attacked in a relatively short time. However, this has led to some environmental concerns.
Allowing reptiles, the natural enemies of locusts to thrive all year round, prevents locust breeding.
A more promising remedy is the biological control mechanisms. Natural predators such as wasps, birds and reptiles can be effective in keeping small swarms at bay.
However, to manage more established swarms, newly developed targeted microbial bio-pesticides, such as mushroom-based "green muscle" offer a solution on a larger scale.

How can locusts be controlled?

The control of desert locust swarms mainly uses organ phosphorus chemicals from aerial sprayers and mounted on vehicles and to a lesser extent from backpack and hand sprayers.
Extensive research on biological control and other non-chemical means of control is underway, with a focus on pathogens and insect growth regulators. Until now, control of natural predators and parasites has been limited, as Locusts can quickly move away from most natural enemies.
Although people and birds often eat locust, it is not enough to significantly reduce population levels in large areas.

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