United Nations experts warned in Rome on Wednesday of a worsening locust crisis in Mauritania, Mali and Niger as huge swarms of the insects cut a swathe through the West African countries.
North-moving swarms are threatening crops and vegetation in Mauritania, where the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said the situation is expected to worsen once a new generation of adult locusts starts appearing by the end of August.
FAO chief Jacques Diouf has been visiting Mauritania to establish the extent of the crisis.
Senegal is also facing a new wave of swarms and what scientists call hoppers — newly hatched, wingless locusts. These are present along the Senegal River valley and Ferlo valley, FAO said.
Agriculture authorities in Senegal have been forced to treat 16 000ha of infested crops and vegetation between July 8 and August 13.
Authorities are bracing for another onslaught of the ravenous, crop-destroying insects.
A series of good rains, first in the Sahel last summer and then in north-west Africa during winter and spring, have created favourable conditions for locust development, allowing at least four generations of locusts to breed in quick succession.
Favourable north-easterly winds have even blown a few swarms to the Cape Verde Islands, which are normally untouched by the phenomenon.
The Rome-based UN agency said the crisis appears to have peaked in Algeria and Morocco, from where now only immature adult groups are being reported.
”As the vegetation is drying out, no further development is expected in the coming weeks,” the FAO said.
The FAO estimates the cost of controlling the locust upsurge at between $58-million and $83-million.
So far, donors have committed about $14-million dollars. Donors include the Arab Organisation for Agricultural Development, France, the Islamic Development Bank, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, the United States and the FAO itself. — Sapa-AFP