Locust plague 2019/2020
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Since 2019, a catastrophic desert locust plague has caused major damage to agriculture, especially in the Horn of Africa and Pakistan, and thus acutely endangers the food supply in the already crisis-ridden region.
Emergence
The crisis has its origin in the southern Arabian Peninsula in the area of the Rub al-Kali desert . In May and October 2018, Cyclone Mekunu and Cyclone Luban brought intense rainfall to this desert region. The resulting strong vegetation development provided plenty of food for the desert locusts, whose population increased significantly, for at least nine months (June 2018 to March 2019). The first swarms left the desert region in January 2019 for southwestern Iran , Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Again favored by abundant rain, several large swarms formed there in the months from February to June. These continued to move in the direction of the Indo-Pakistani border from June to December, where further growth was favored by a longer-than-normal monsoon period. From October to December 2019, swarms moved from Yemen across the Red Sea towards Northern Somalia and Ethiopia . A further hurricane hit in December 2019, the Horn of Africa and enabled a further increase of shoals, the end of the month Kenya reached and early February 2020, Uganda and Tanzania arrived.
In December 2020, the first swarms of locusts again passed over Kenya. Control measures had previously failed in several states. Further reinforcement is expected.
Scientists blame the frequent positive phases of the Indian Ocean Dipole for the heavy precipitation events and suspect a connection with global warming .
Effects
A massive plague of locusts has ruled the Horn of Africa since October 2019. The worst is in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia. Other affected areas include a. in Djibouti , Uganda , Congo , Sudan , South Sudan and Eritrea , on the southern Arabian Peninsula , in western India and Pakistan. Many of these countries have declared a state of emergency .
In January 2020, a swarm with hundreds of millions of insects in Kenya had an area of 2,400 km², which roughly corresponds to the area of the Saarland . According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), one square kilometer of a swarm of locusts eats the same amount of food as 35,000 people. In February 2020, 5,000 km² of land had already been destroyed. It is considered to be the worst desert locust plague in Kenya for 70 years and in Ethiopia and Somalia for 25 years. According to the UN, the locust population could even increase 500 times by June 2020. Then up to 13 million people would be acutely hungrythreatened, and that in regions that are already in a critical nutritional situation. It is also feared that the plague could continue for several years. The FAO assessed the situation in April 2020 as "still alarming". The rainy season in East Africa is expected to lead to a dramatic increase in locusts. Due to global warming, according to climate researchers, the number of cyclones increases every year, which favors a locust crisis.
To make matters worse, civil wars are currently raging in many of the affected areas (see, for example, South Sudan , Somalia and Yemen , where a cholera epidemic has also broken out). This not only makes fighting the plague more difficult, but also millions of people are already on the run, and their situation is now threatening to deteriorate further. Added to this is the global COVID-19 pandemic since the beginning of 2020 . The effects of the 2019/2020 locust plague were also intensified by the floods in Sudan in 2020 , as this flooded many fields that had previously been spared by the locusts.
Combat and relief efforts
An early control of the swarm with pesticides in Yemen was not possible because of the civil war , so that the animals could reproduce there undisturbed.
To combat this, pesticides are increasingly being sprayed in East Africa , and biological control by the parasitic fungus Metarhizium acridum is being tested. The FAO has called for government donations of $ 153 million; A total of 144 million had been pledged by states in May 2020.
| Pesticides | Ethiopia | Uganda | Kenya | Sudan | South Sudan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chlorpyrifos | 220,000 liters | 25,000 liters | |||
| Deltamethrin | 50,000 liters | 305,600 liters | |||
| Fenitrothion | 8,000 liters | ||||
| Malathion | 110,000 liters | 100,000 liters | 15,000 liters |
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Locust watch: Current upsurge (2019-2020). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), accessed March 15, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Erik Stokstad: In Somalia, an unprecedented effort to kill massive locust swarms with biocontrol. In: sciencemag.org . February 12, 2020, accessed on March 11, 2020, doi: 10.1126 / science.abb2759 (English).
- ^ Fear of a second plague of locusts in East Africa . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , December 5, 2020. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
- ↑ Alexander Freund: Weather phenomena cause fires, heavy rain and plague of locusts. In: dw.com . March 14, 2020, accessed March 14, 2020.
- ↑ Desert Locust Bulletin No.496, February 3, 2020 (PDF; 946 kB) FAO Desert Locust Information Service, February 3, 2020, accessed on March 11, 2020.
- ↑ A danger to millions of people. Retrieved May 27, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Kerstin Bandsom: Plague of locusts in East Africa and South Asia. In: welthungerhilfe.de. March 11, 2020, accessed March 11, 2020 .
- ^ Areas affected by the desert locust crisis in the Greater Horn of Africa: FAO in Emergencies. In: fao.org. March 2020, accessed on March 8, 2020 (English).
- ↑ Switzerland supports the people of East Africa in the fight against the locust invasion. In: eda.admin.ch/deza . February 18, 2020, accessed February 19, 2020.
- ↑ Kamran Chaudhry: Pakistan proclaims national emergency following locust invasion. In: asianews.it . February 4, 2020, accessed on March 11, 2020.
- ↑ Pakistan declares national emergency over locust swarms. In: dw.com February 1, 2020, accessed on March 11, 2020.
- ↑ Somalia declares emergency after worst desert locusts invasion. In: garoweonline.com . February 2, 2020, accessed on March 11, 2020.
- ↑ The eighth plague. Retrieved May 27, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Welthungerhilfe: Locusts could stay for years. In: tagesschau.de. March 8, 2020, accessed March 8, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c d e Christoph Seidler, DER SPIEGEL: Devastating Plague of Locusts: The Flying Danger - DER SPIEGEL - Science. Retrieved May 25, 2020 .
- ↑ Welthungerhilfe - Fight against the locust plague. Retrieved May 20, 2020 .
- ↑ "No recovery between disasters" . In: Tagesschau.de , September 29, 2020. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
- ↑ Fighting locusts with pesticides. In: schweizerbauer.ch . February 4, 2020, accessed February 5, 2020.
- ↑ Lennart Pyritz: Plague of locusts in East Africa - "The food security of millions of people is at risk". In: deutschlandfunk.de. February 26, 2020, accessed March 8, 2020 .