August 31, 2004

Locusts Invade West Africa's Grain Belt

Massive swarms of locust continue to spread throughout West Africa’s Sahel grain belt as harvest season begins this month.  Currently, the worst affected country is Mauritania; locusts continue to breed and spread into other countries such as Senegal, Mali, and Niger. Locust swarms also have been reported in Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad, and northwestern Nigeria (Sokoto, Zamfara, and Kebbi states), where millions of peasant farmers grow maize, millet, sorghum, beans, groundnuts, and cotton.

Regional as well as international efforts are required to prevent the locust outbreak from spreading to eastern Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and further.  Many affected countries do not have sufficient funds to fully finance national control campaigns for aerial spraying, purchase of pesticides and sprayers, and ground transport funds for abatement and monitoring operations. This is the worst locust outbreak in West Africa since 1989, when $600 million was spent over five years on locust control operations. The FAO estimates that up to $100 million is required this year to control locust from spreading into neighboring countries, and $32 million already has been approved and is in the pipeline. FAO reports that some of the funds have been provided directly to countries through bilateral assistance, while a large majority of the funds have been routed through FAO.  

Abundant rainfall has created favorable ecological conditions for locust development, starting in the Sahel last summer of 2003 and continuing in northwest Africa during the winter and spring of 2004.  Rainfall has also been favorable for the 2004 growing season, which started in June and ends in October/November. In general, crop conditions are near average within most regions of the western grain belt with pockets of delayed and sporadic rainfall during the month of June.  However, below-average crop conditions are located along the northern edge of the eastern grain belt in Niger, Chad, and western Sudan.

Reduction in production caused by the locust cannot be quantified at this time as control operations are under way and many weather and ecological scenarios can take place between now and harvest.  Final harvest estimates will largely depend on the success of these abatement operations and whether locust continue to breed and consume the harvest in the next few months. 

Other Related Links 

PECAD

    Bumper Cotton Harvest in Franc Zone Africa ( 9/22/03 )
    Bumper Grain Harvest in Northwest Africa ( 3/10/04 )
    Crop Explorer Weather and Crop Condition Data for West Africa 

FAO’s Desert Locust Information Service
USAID’s Assistance for Emergency Locust/Grasshopper Abatement
Precipitation Anomalies from NOAA

For more information, contact Curt Reynolds
with the Production Estimates and Crop Assessment Division, at Curt.Reynolds@fas.usda.gov or (202) 690-0134.