Role of Insects in Food Security
Role of Insects in Food Security
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Role of Insects in Food Security
The Threat of Desert Locust to Food Security in Africa
Overview
INCLUDEPICTURE “https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQg5D3OadzDfdjB1WJqEJJ4yeU1b3Vvh3M8dgC69mlEQTezFvCj&s” * MERGEFORMATINET The desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) is a major threat to agriculture within an extended area that stretches from north African and the Atlantic Ocean to Southwest Asia and the Middle East, which are majorly desert and semi-desert areas (Lecoq, 2003). In African deserts, this insect is feared because of the significant damage it causes on agro-sylvo-pastoral systems of production when they invade during their seasonal invasions enabled by the insect’s robust and intricate migratory capabilities. The damage translates to severe food security problems, along with environmental and socioeconomic disturbances.
Key Figures and Facts
African countries mostly at the risk of the desert locust threat include desert nations such as Algeria, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, and Morocco (Anyamba et al. 2005)
African countries facing potential desert locust threat
Source: Anyamba et al. 2005
The largest crop damage by desert locusts in Africa was $ 2.5 billion that occurred between 2003 and 2005.
Stopping this plague required $450 million (Palca, 2019).
Adult locust swarms can fly 150km per day (FAO, 2019).
A small locust swarm can damage food that can feed 35,000 people per day (FAO, 2019).
Eight locust invasion periods have been witnessed in the past, and that was between1860 and 2003, some of which lasted more than 22 years.
Food crops in Africa mostly targeted by desert locusts are cereals and carbohydrate-rich crops.
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Factors in the Desert Locust Threat
Quick and rapid locust breeding during the summer as the queen can lay 300 eggs.
Presence of heavy rains that amplify their breeding
High migratory capacities that enable them to transcend international boundaries.
Nature of the Desert Locust Threat
During periods of favorable rainfall in African deserts, outbreaks, invasions, and upsurges of desert locusts occur in most Saharan countries. Large swarms of these locusts breed as they migrate from one area to another because of the many eggs produced by queens. These locust swarms voraciously feed on grasses, trees, agricultural crops, and any other plant in their migratory routes. This form of feeding devastates crops meant for people and livestock, leading to serious food security challenges realized in the form of famines and starvation amongst crop-reliant communities.
Periods of rainfall recession interrupt the breeding and the populations of desert locusts reduce so that these locusts are only present in small numbers (Lecoq, 2003).
Importance of the Desert Locust Threat
The occurrence of desert locust invasions has both socioeconomic and environmental importance. All types of vegetation are subject to an attack during the invasion, with damage occurring to all crop types in the locusts’ route of migration, including biennial and perennial crops that are either irrigated or rain-fed. Consequently, these invasions cause damage to the total biomass production, culminating in the abandonment of the affected agricultural and pastoral lands. As competition for food between locusts, humans, and livestock continues, vegetation deteriorates, soil fertility declines, and ecological balance is disturbed. Further devastation causes local desertification, which has acute environmental implications such as loss of rainfall levels. An augmentation of irrigation in desert areas in the Sahara increases the economic risk of desert locust invasions (Eriksson, 2008). Also, since these locust invasions are inclined to happen during favorable rainfall periods in these desert areas, the development of agricultural crops during these periods increase the economic impact of the locust invasions (Ceccato et al., 2007; Lecoq, 2003).
Solutions
The desert locust can be addressed using three strategies:
Containment: The containment strategy entails using pesticides to spray small locust colonies before they gather, breed, and spread to agricultural areas. This strategy requires leveraging data on early warning signs of a potential locust outbreak (The World Bank, 2010).
Reinforcement of EMPRES: The acronym EMPRES stands for Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pest and Diseases, which is a preventive program endorsed by FAO as part of its locust control mandate. The program aims at fighting locusts without the use of pesticides. African countries need to be proactive in adopting this program as it encourages intervention in locusts’ early development stages during which locusts only present themselves in small numbers (Van der Valk et al. 2006).
Anticipatory Crop Protection: This strategy involves using the available plague data to anticipate when the locust plague can reach the crops, hence launching strategic spraying campaigns to protect the crops before the plague reaches them.
Evaluations of Recent Perspectives
The desert locust threat is a transboundary problem due to the locusts’ high mobility, implying that ongoing international cooperation among African countries is essential for surveillance, preventive action, research, and training geared towards locust control.
Research needs to be expanded in the areas of livestock-locust interactions to develop improved mechanisms of responding to locust outbreaks (Le Gall, Overson, & Cease, 2019).
References
Anyamba, A., Small, J., Tucker, C. J., Cressman, K., Love, T. B., & Linthicum, K. J. (2005, September). Remote sensing of eco-climatic conditions associated with the 2004 Desert Locust outbreak in Northwest and Sahelian Africa. In Pecora 16 Symp. Global Priorities in Land Remote Sensing.
Ceccato, P., Cressman, K., Giannini, A., & Trzaska, S. (2007). The desert locust upsurge in West Africa (2003–2005): Information on the desert locust early warning system and the prospects for seasonal climate forecasting. International Journal of Pest Management, 53(1), 7-13.
Eriksson, H. (2008). Effects on non-target organisms of insecticides used to control desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria. (Licentiate Thesis, Uppsala University of Agricultural Sciences).
FAO. (July 25, 2019). FAO warns of Desert Locust outbreaks in Yemen and the Horn of Africa. Report from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Rome. FAO. Retrieved December 19, 2019, from https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/fao-warns-desert-locust-outbreaks-yemen-and-horn-africa.
Le Gall, M., Overson, R., & Cease, A. J. (2019). A global review on locusts (Orthoptera: Acrididae) and their interactions with livestock grazing practices. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 7, 263.
Lecoq, M. (2003). Desert locust threat to agricultural development and food security and FAO/international role in its control. Arab Society for Plant Protection. Arab J. Pl. Prot. 21, 188-193.
Palca, J. (August 19, 2019). Maybe the way to control locusts is by growing crops they don’t like. NRP. Retrieved December 19, 2019, from https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/08/19/752361368/maybe-the-way-to-control-locusts-is-by-growing-crops-they-dont-like.
The World Bank. (January 7, 2010). Improved ways to prevent the desert locust in Mauritania and the Sahel. The World Bank. Retrieved December 19, 2019, from https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2010/01/07/improved-ways-to-prevent-the-desert-locust-in-mauritania-and-the-sahel.
Van der Valk, H., Del Castello, R., Cressman, K., Monard, A., Eriksson, H., Ammati, M., … & Everts, J. (2006). Fighting the locusts… Safely. Pesticides in desert locust control: Balancing risks against benefits. FAO.
