Farmers at risk from North Africa locust swarm

• UN agency carrying out locust control
• Outbreak has lasted several months
• Risk if swarms reach farmland

A locust outbreak in North Africa risks endangering the livelihoods of already hard-pressed farmers in the region.

In recent weeks, the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a UN agency, has issued a succession of warnings over a growing locust threat spreading from North Africa and across central Africa.

In Africa’s north, adult groups of the insects have arrived in Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and, to a lesser extent, Morocco. As spring progresses, the problem is expected to worsen, the FAO has warned. 

“Adult groups and small swarms will breed, causing hopper groups and bands to increase,” the FAO said. The organisation’s colour coded warning is set at yellow, signalling a potential threat to crops, urging increased vigilance and cautioning that control operations may be needed.

The FAO is tracking swarm movements and carrying out targeted control operations to reduce populations and limit crop damage, an FAO spokesperson told AGBI.

“While the situation remains dynamic, these coordinated efforts have significantly mitigated the swarms’ spread,” the spokesperson said.

If the outbreak is not controlled, it is likely farmers will pay the price.

“It’s a livelihood issue,” said Martin Keulertz, lecturer in environmental management at the University of the West of England and an AGBI columnist. “The key impact will be felt by farmers, who are often already struggling to stay in business. Rural poverty levels may further increase without intervention.”

While the FAO says it is fighting the current outbreak, locust infestations can take years to stamp out, warned Keulertz. A desert locust can consume its own weight in food each day – about two grams. A 1 sq km swarm of locusts contains about 40 million insects, which will eat the same amount of food as about 35,000 people, the FAO said. 

It is “particularly concerning” that the current outbreak has now persisted for several months, Michel Lecoq, an entomologist and locust expert, said.

“While cultivated areas have so far been only marginally affected – if at all – the situation remains serious for the countries concerned,” he said.

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Lecoq explained that most of the outbreaks are currently far from agricultural areas and that efforts are ongoing to prevent the outbreak from becoming a “full-blown invasion” of crop-growing lands.

In Morocco, agriculture, forestry and fishing account for about a tenth of the economy. It has the largest agricultural output of any of the North African countries now threatened by the locusts. Morocco has just received long-awaited rainfall that is expected to rejuvenate agricultural production and the wider economy. 

The question now is whether countries are able to fully carry out surveillance and control operations, said Lecoq.

“Their financial situation, as well as chronic insecurity in certain regions, may prevent them from carrying out the job effectively.”