Crop-growing areas in danger

Photo credit: Arabia Weather

According to today’s dailies, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture revealed that new swarms of locusts coming from Egypt descended on crop-growing areas in northern state. The state ministry of agriculture warned that the agriculture season is in real danger, pointing out that despite reinforcements sent by the central government, the sheer numbers of locusts hovering across the state proved too much to handle.

According to reports received by operation rooms set up in Aldabba locality in the northern state, the pests have now devoured about 453 acres of crops. On its part, the General Department of Crop Protection in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture warned that the situation is spiraling out of control, and that the rising numbers of swarms coming from Egypt could follow the course of the Nile where banks are usually rich in crop.

International agencies have also confirmed that more of the pests will be seen over the coming weeks.

At least six super-swarms were detected on Sudan’s Red Sea coastal plains, the UN’s Rome-based Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) wrote in a report on its Locust Watch website. Several swarms moved west into northern Sudan’s interior, attacking winter crops and fruit orchards, the report showed.

“The situation is potentially dangerous as more swarms are expected to form in the coming weeks that could move into parts of northern Sudan and southern Egypt,” the FAO wrote adding that, “All efforts are required to control the infestations and protect winter crops”, pointing out that four swarms were also reported in southern Sudan near the border with Eritrea.

According to the report, some swarms may move inland in Sudan and Egypt as well as across the Red Sea to the coast of Saudi Arabia, if rain holds out and vegetation starts to dry.

The swarms, usually containing tens of millions of insects, can cover as much as 150 kilometers (93 miles) a day, and a female locust can lay up to 300 eggs in her lifetime, according to the UN agency.

 Relevant authorities should waste no time in redoubling efforts to manage this dangerous threat and increase, as much as needed, the budget of Department of Crop Protection to provide it with the required tools including monitoring, pesticide stocks and the aircraft needed for spraying.  Nipping the problem in the bud by locating the breeding ground of these locusts, more aggressive than any border-crossing insurgents, would of course be ideal.