LOCUST THREAT THIS YEAR

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29178, 12 April 1960, Page 8

LOCUST THREAT THIS YEAR

Warning Issued By FAO.

„ ROME The Food and Agriculture Organisation warned today that countries afflicted by the desert locust may face this year “infestations as great as or even greater than any experienced at least since 1954.”

The prediction is embodied in the report of the F.A.O. Eastern African Desert Locust Control Sub-committee, which met at Nairobi, Kenya, in January. The report is published today. In addition to reviewing the present situation and outlook, the report emphasises the need to change from the present defensive policy against outbreaks to an offensive strategy against the locusts at their source. This approach had been recommended by a recent meeting of an F.A.O. panel of experts on anti-locust strategy. It was also a major factor of a six-year locust control project approved last December Iby the United Nations Special Fund; the Special Fund project, with a projected budget of Fund and governmental contributions totalling 3.75 million dollars, was now in the stage of detailed planning, and a plan of operation would be submitted to participating governments at a special meeting at F.A.O. in April. The sub-committee’s report says that the plague is expected to develop as a result of invasions of the northern Somali Peninsula in December. Heavy and widespread infestation was probable in north-western Africa.