August 31, 2004
Massive swarms of locust continue to spread throughout West Africa’s
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
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.
Bumper
Cotton Harvest in Franc Zone Africa (
Bumper
Grain Harvest in
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