African plague taking wing

Press, 12 September 1986, Page 10

African plague taking wing

NZPA-Reuter Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast From the Red Sea almost to the Cape of Good Hope, Africa is now threatened by its worst invasions of locusts for 40 years, the United Nations’ top official in the field says. Lukas Brader, director of the Rome-based Emergency Centre for Locust Operation, said that if they are not controlled the swarms of ravenous insects could soon devour crops in much of east and southern Africa. "Even with the best of efforts, it will not be possible to stop all these upsurges in the coming month,” said Mr Brader, who is in the Ivory Coast capital, Yamoussoukro, for. a conference of African Agriculture Ministers. Four varieties of the pest are now hatching rapidly because of this year’s generally good rains, which ended several years of disastrous drought. One species has already reached the stage officially designated “a plague.” Mr Brader said the variety called desert lo-

custs were breeding quickly in areas around the Red Sea, African migratory locusts were spreading in Sudan and Ethiopia, red locusts were swarming in Tanzania and Zambia, and brown locusts had infested vast swaths of southern Africa. Unlike Senegalese grasshoppers, which are threatening crops in West Africa’s Sahel, locusts can swarm and fly the whole day. “Locusts eat up everything,” Mr Brader said. He calculated that a swarm covering a square kilometre could number around 60 million and destroy 100 tonnes of crops in a day. The swarms migrate for hundreds of kilometres in a single generation. Mr Brader said a plan of action to deal with the menace had been submitted to a meeting of aid donors at Rome in July. Africa needed about SUSS million ($10.4 million) more to fight locusts in 1986 — bringing the cost this year to SUS 9 million ($18.72 million) — another SUSII million ($22.88 million) next year and SUS 7 million ($14.56 million) in 1988 would be needed.