MAURITANIA/MALI/SENEGAL: Vital food crops in the Western African country of Mali under thret from locust storms

Record ID: 836382

  • Title: MAURITANIA/MALI/SENEGAL: Vital food crops in the Western African country of Mali under thret from locust storms
  • Date: 20th September 2004
  • Summary: (L!2) AIOUN PROVINCE AND NOUAKCHOTT MAURITANIA/ WEST OF TIMBUKTU, MALI AND DAKAR, SENEGAL (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF LOCUSTS SWARM GROUP OF OFF OFFICIALS OFFICIALS INVADED BY LOCUST SOUNDBITE (English) JACQUES DIOUF, Food and Agriculture Organisation, SAYING "The situation is quite serious and it's a matter of concern for us because we have initial stage of multipli
  • Embargoed: 5th October 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: AIOUN PROVINCE AND NOUAKCHOTT MAURITANIA/ WEST OF TIMBUKTU, MALI AND DAKAR, SENEGA
  • City:
  • Country: Mauritania Senegal Mali
  • Topics: Disasters,Environment
  • Reuters ID: LVA7NF0Y8420M109VSV2BSWKIHWY
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Vital food crops in the West African country of Mali under threat from locust swarms.
    For the last two years the rains have been good in Western and Northern Africa. But the rain that sustains crops also provides ideal conditions for a pest that can destroy them -- locusts.
    The Sahel region is bracing itself for what experts say could be the worst locust invasion since 1989, when millions faced famine as a result of the destroyed crops and 600 million US dollars were spent to bring the locusts under control. This time round, it hasn't got that far yet. But locusts are already swarming in Mauritania, Mali, Senegal and Niger -- and experts here in Mauritania's Aioun province are deeply worried.
    Jacques Diouf from the Food and Agriculture Organisation says: This swarm in Mali has already left a trail of destruction in its wake as it moves west from the northern town of Timbuktu.
    Desert locusts live for between three and five months.
    Females will lay eggs at least three times during their lives and each time will produce up to eighty eggs. The eggs take two weeks to hatch and these immature locusts will turn into fully-grown adults in just over a month.
    This group is already on the move and will soon be learning how to fly.
    The difference between locusts and regular grasshoppers is that locusts are able to change their behaviour and habits. Normally they are solitary animals, but when their numbers increase they congregate and migrate to find food.
    When they swarm, there can be between forty and eighty million locusts in one square kilometer and once they learn how to fly, they can travel 130 kilometers or more per day.
    The countries in the Sahel don't have the money to control an invasion like this on their own. Here in Mali, the German Agro Action Group has been trying to help manage the locust crisis.
    Daniel Meijering from German Agro Action says : "The locusts came down from the Maghreb states and migrated down here over the course of spring. Now they're finishing all the vegetation in this area, before moving south to infest the farms there."
    Spraying pesticides on crops and vegetation is currently the only way to stop the army of insects. But considering that the area affected by locusts now spans thousands of square kilometers, this is no small task, and the countries affected have insufficient resources for the project. 37 million US dollars has already been approved to help fight the locust problem this year, but experts say over 100 million is needed if a major food shortage in the region is to be avoided.
    This man says "We hope that with the assistance provided by the delegation on a local level with these two teams, with the intervention of the ground teams from the Anti-Locusts Centre in Nouakchott, with aerial spraying and with the help of local farmers, that all these means combined will manage to bring the situation under control."
    In Nouakchott, Mauritania's capital, ministers are meeting with representatives from the European Union and the Food and Agriculture Organisation to discuss the country's locust problem and to secure aid to help combat the plague.
    Minister of Rural Development Ahmedou Ould says "The situation is completely catastrophic if you look at the infested area, because the area that we had projected was a maximum of 800,000 to 1 million hectares, when in reality the infected area is now 1,600,000 hectares that have to be worked on, that have to be treated. So it is a catastrophic situation."
    Most of Mauritania's rural population are farmers, growing maize, millet, sorghum, beans, groundnuts and cotton. They rely on their crops to feed themselves and their families.
    A few days ago, this farmer's field was full of millet, almost ready to harvest. The locust swarm only took minutes to devastate the crop. This is all that remains.
    This man says "I am really worried because usually you see all these fields cultivated. Now I don't know what to do -- do I replant afresh or do I wait? And truly I am really worried because I live off my fields."
    It's not just the farmers that are affected. Nomadic pastoralists graze their livestock in this area after the rains. But this year their traditional migratory routes are going to have to change because locusts are eating all the grass.
    This man says "They bring on dryness and cause some diseases as well in the cattle."
    The unwelcome visitors have left their mark on all four countries already -- and not just in rural farming communities.
    Here in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, people tried to get on with their lives amidst a blizzard of yellow, as a swarm closed in around the city. For some it was even a form of entertainment -- but for the majority, protecting their food was the priority.
    Whatever the location, the effect of the locusts is the same. For now, waiting and hoping for an end to this nightmare is all that many can do.
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