FAO heads international campaign to avert locust and grasshopper outbreaks and save Africa's crops.

FAO heads international campaign to avert locust and grasshopper outbreaks and save Africa's crops

Locust and grasshopper infestationsthat, if unchecked, could trigger another food crisis in Africa were the target of international efforts in July, August and September. Co-ordinated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the campaign was aimed at preventing a chain of hatching and breeding of the insects that could lead to a three-year plague.

An emergency plan to head off a locustplague in sub-Saharan Africa was announced 7 July in Rome by the FAO. Edouard Saouma, FAO Director-General, explaining that for the first time in 50 years there were high concentrations of all four locust species commonly found in Africa, called for speedy action to prevent the infestations from developing into "generalized plagues" which could affect virtually all countries of the region.

"It is a tragic irony that as Africabegins to emerge from the recent devastating drought, its crops should now be faced with this grave threat", said Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar on 14 August, in an appeal for increased assistance from the international community.

"A locust plague of frighteningproportions will face Africa unless control teams with the necessary resources are put in place quickly to protect food crops", Mr. Saouma warned on 7 August, as he announced the establishment of the Emergency Centre for Locust Operations (ECLO) at FAO's Rome headquarters. "We cannot let locusts devour the food supply that Africans are working so hard this year to produce."

The Centre was to function as a"crisis prevention team", Mr. Saouma explained, to strengthen and support the efforts of FAO, African Governments, donors, and regional and international organizations. Entomologist Lukas Brader, Director of FAO's Plant Production and Protection Division, was named to head the Centre, which would oversee implementation of the emergency plan.

The plan, prepared at an FAO technicalmeeting of locust control experts and potential donors in Rome, called for delivery of $8 million in pesticides, equipment and aircraft services of affected countries and to regional organizations fighting the insects. An additional $15 million would be needed in 1987-88 if breeding conditions were favourable and swarms invaded territory outside their traditional outbreak areas, FAO estimated.

"This is a high-priority, high-stakescampaign," stated ECLO Director Brader on 7 August. "Locusts and grasshoppers, now in various stages of hatching, breeding and swarming, must be closely tracked across large parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The existing infrastructure is generally weak, and pesticides, equipment, vehicles and spare parts are lacking. Control measures in some areas are complicated by security problems."

Humid conditions: Warm, wetweather conditions that favour breeding and hatching have led to the high concentrations of locusts--the targets of the first phase of the anti-pest campaign. A second phase of the campaign, launched on 19 August, was aimed at controlling grasshopper swarms that threatened crops in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal.

The FAO, in co-operation with nationaland regional organizations, has kept the insect "hot spots" in Africa under constant supervision since last year. In October 1985, the FAO Director-General appealed for international assistance to help control grasshopper outbreaks in the Sahel. Donor meetings in May, July and August 1986 raised closed to $20 million for continued locust and grasshopper control.

About $12 million has been mobilizedfor grasshopper operations in West Africa and about $6 million for locust campaigns in other parts of the continent. Pledges and offers of assistance have come from Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United States, the European Economic Community (EEC), the United NAtions Development Programme, and various non-governmental organizations, as well as FAO.

The Office of the United NationsDisaster Relief Co-ordinator (UNDRO) is assisting FAO by distributing--through a telex network reaching some 140 countries--information on the nature and scope of assistance required and assistance already received to potential donors, affected countries and governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. In the affected African countries, United Nations Development Programme resident representatives are handling mobilization and co-ordination of local authorities, NGOs and United Nations agencies, to avoid duplication or overlap of equipment and services.

Air campaign: Participants in a 19August meeting at FAO headquarters reviewed the locust and grasshopper situations, prepared national action plans and mobilized additional resources for the second phase of the pest-control campaign--an air attack on the grasshoppers in West africa by crisis prevention teams, scheduled for early September.

Donors examined the resourcesneeded to make the teams operational--pesticides, specialzied personnel, ground support and spraying equipment--and agreed on measures to avoid delays in the delivery of supplies. Some 30 aircraft were committed to the campaign, and in what Mr. Saouma termed a "unique sharing arrangement", the EEC, the United States and France provided $3.2 million in pesticides and equipment.

Praising the international cooperationto fight the locust and grasshopper "menace" in Africa as "an outstanding model of framework", Mr. Saouma emphasized on 26 August that "speed is of the essence. Thanks to the energetic and immediate action taken by donors, we can kick off the campaign without further delay," he said.