The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicated that Madagascar faces a potential risk of a locust plague, which might ruin crops intended to feed about 460,000 families.
The migratory Malagasy locusts usually gather in the southwest of the country, but have recently moved to the north and east. For the time being, the locusts cannot breed in the country because of the dry, cool weather, but new generations can be produced very quickly when the environment is wet and hot.
Before the rainy season in mid-October takes off, prevention for widespread crop failure and a potential plague have to be taken through a long-term campaign of air and ground control.
Together with national authorities, the FAO has set up a field assessment mission concluding that the locusts’ spreading should be followed closely by way of aerial surveillance starting next month.
“The fact that in the traditional outbreak area of migratory Malagasy locusts in Madagascar … there were already swarms produced at the end of the previous rainy season—and due to the fact that a number of them escaped this area—it’s for us a good indication that locusts are becoming a very dangerous pest,” said FAO locust officer Annie Monard, according to VOA News.
Under normal circumstances, locusts live individually, but increasing populations cause changes in the chemistry of the locusts’ bodies, which makes them group as a synchronized swarm.
The migratory Malagasy locusts usually gather in the southwest of the country, but have recently moved to the north and east. For the time being, the locusts cannot breed in the country because of the dry, cool weather, but new generations can be produced very quickly when the environment is wet and hot.
Before the rainy season in mid-October takes off, prevention for widespread crop failure and a potential plague have to be taken through a long-term campaign of air and ground control.
Together with national authorities, the FAO has set up a field assessment mission concluding that the locusts’ spreading should be followed closely by way of aerial surveillance starting next month.
“The fact that in the traditional outbreak area of migratory Malagasy locusts in Madagascar … there were already swarms produced at the end of the previous rainy season—and due to the fact that a number of them escaped this area—it’s for us a good indication that locusts are becoming a very dangerous pest,” said FAO locust officer Annie Monard, according to VOA News.
Under normal circumstances, locusts live individually, but increasing populations cause changes in the chemistry of the locusts’ bodies, which makes them group as a synchronized swarm.
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