Desert Locust, a menace that needs to be exterminated
14 March, 2013KHARTOUM, (Sudanow)—" we couldn’t control the growing desert locust infestations which will certainly cause onerous damage in the farms of the State,” said the Minister of Agriculture in the Northern State who held the central government in Khartoum responsible for the desert locust control.
Because no precautions have been taken well ahead in advance, the winter farming season in the State has become a matter of fact, with the crops, especially the main ones, including palm dates, damaged as a result of the failure of all efforts of control, the Minister, Adil Jaafer added.
The State has previously formed a control operations room after receiving the first report on arrival of the desert locust in a neighbouring state, Jaafer said. When it was notified, the Center dispatched only one plane in addition to insecticides, but the situation was not brought under control, he added, warning the concerned officials in Khartoum to be aware of the precarious situation as the winter season is coming to a close. According the Minister of Agriculture in the Northern State, the desert locust equally threatens other states, including Khartoum and the Gezira as the precautions taken by the government upon arrival of the first swarm were not adequate to cope with the invasion by the desert locust which is internationally recognized as a dangerous pest that requires local, regional and international cooperation to control. The Ministry handles the increasing infestations of the desert locust in a routine way, according to the Minister of State in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, Jaafer Ahmed Abdulla, who described the control measures being as slow and inconstant with the desert locust that moves in large numbers. He said in a briefing to the Council of Ministers that the Ministry has begun preparations since November 2012 but the volume of the invading swarms was unpredictable. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was slow in responding to the appeal and did not provide any assistance for elimination of the locust that has invaded the Red Sea and Northern state and is threatening to invade other states, the Minister of State complained. A tour by SUDANOW of the east bank of the River Nile in the Northern State revealed that the most affected areas were Merowe, Al-Dabbah and Al-Golid where the locust swarms assaulted the date palm flowers, forewarning an imminent failure of this season’s crop which in the basic crop of the State. However, Khidir Jebril, the Plant Protection Director in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, told SUDANOW that the situation in the Northern State is under control. He said that his Department has provided three spraying aircraft in Dongola, Merowe and Al-Dabbah and that the damage caused by the desert locust is less than 1% in Al-Dabbah Locality. He was sure that the locust did not cause any damage in the what, Egyptian beans and palm date crops. The East African region’s Desert Locust Control Organization (DLCO) contributed to the locust control operations on the Red Sea coast by sending a plane that presently takes part in the winter control campaign, Jebril said. The aerial and land control operations covered 25,399 hectares, he said. The Northern State, meanwhile, declared that the desert locust control operations are progressing satisfactorily with 40,000 hectares sprayed with 30,000 litres of insecticides and seven teams of technicians and inspectors operating in areas where the locust exists in parts of Al-Dabbah, Merowe, Al-Golid and Burgaig localities. The Government of Sudan has lodged with FAO a formal protest for non-cooperation by the organization in fighting the desert locust swarms that devastated vast areas of the Northern, River Nile and Red Sea states and cause excessive damage to the agricultural crops. Land control difficulties: Mohamed Ahmed al-Subai, the vice-president of the Sudan farmers union, ridiculed the control efforts being exerted, noting that it is well known that it is difficult to fight locust during adulthood. It is, rather, fought during egg-laying or pre-adult stages as practiced in all countries of the world, Subai said. It is difficult to control the swarms that have covered vast farming areas in Port Sudan and the Northern State, he said predicting that the desert locust would spread all over the country and that the spraying operations in the farming areas will pose a great threat of pollution. It should have been handled and sprayed while it was traveling in the desert away from the crops because the land control is difficult, Subai opined. Losses in the Northern State yet to be assessed: Babikir Hajj Idriss, the president of the Northern State farmers union, said they did not expect arrival of the desert locust from the Red Sea to the farming lands in the Northern State due to wide desert separating the two states. The locust attack has caused tremendous losses which have not yet been assessed, he said. Although the concerned authorities were aware of the arrival of the desert locust at the borders of the country, the follow-up and control were absent on the part of the Plant Protection Department, Idriss said. The concerned authorities took action after the arrival of the pest but, he said despite this action, the damage has occurred. The locust should be controlled while it is still in the desert and away from the agricultural lands but the authorities did not show concern until the locust reached Tokar and then Abu Hamad in the River Nile State and thereafter the Northern State, said the Northern farmers union president. He expected the greedy insect would spread over other agricultural lands as its control has become extremely difficult, indicating that the locust leaves behind its eggs after it is sprayed and moves to another farming land. That egg sometimes breeds and develops into a full-fledged and thus the spraying, whether aerial or land, becomes useless, as the eggs survive for years waiting for conducive conditions to get ready for another attack, Idriss said. It is quite certain that the locust that spread in Tokar and the Northern State would have left its eggs behind as the plans set by the Ministry of Agriculture for the protection of the winter are unrealistic. Locust Control, whose responsibility? Agriculturist Anas Siral Khatim said the Government has provided the Plant Protection Department with all requirements but it did nothing and as the locust swarms have entered the country and spread in the states it will be difficult to control them. Preparations should have been made by the end of last November in anticipation of any emergency ahead of the harvest months and as the situation has become out of control, the agricultural season has gone with the locust swarms. Khatim said if preparation had been taken from the start, the control would have been easier but the situation now requires aerial control which highly expensive. There is a locust control section in the State, why has it taken charge? Whose responsibility is this? Anas wondered. He said this situation reveals complete absence for follow-up in addition to absence of the technical opinion in the Ministry of Agriculture. “We can only appeal upon the Government to provide the Plant Protection Department with will all capabilities for addressing the situation,” the agriculturist said. Here does the desert locust come from? The swarms of locust moved from Egypt and invaded the Northern State via the eastern and the River Nile states. Red Sea Government spokesperson Al-Sadek Al-Milaik explains: The desert locust came from Abu Ramad and Shalateen areas, latitude 23 degrees north. Upon its arrival in Shalateen, the authorities sprayed it by planes. Then it moved from Oshaik area towards Port Sudan but did not remain long as the area is dry and moved to the wet areas of Tokar. The authorities then used planes to exterminate the desert locust. Until now, the swarms have not caused any damage although they target the winter vegetation, particularly the wheat. The spraying planes therefore moved from the Red Sea State to the River Nile and Northern states. It was the first time for the desert locust to invade the farms on the east bank in such a huge volume, spreading over 2,000 hectares. We are ready in southern Tokar for carrying out land control operations in in Abu Hamad and the Northern State. Precautions by the states: The states neighbouring on the Northern States have taken precautions for controlling the desert locust, as: The Plant Protection Department in North Darfur State is busy these days monitoring and following up movements of the desert locust that recently appeared in the Northern State. This department denied any effect by this insect on the State as the environment in North Darfur is not suitable for locust breeding at this time of the year. The Department Director, Engineer Mohamed Osman Abbaker said his Department has taken all measures in anticipation of any emergency Abbaker said he has instructed the plant protection directors in the localities of the State to watch out for any movements of the desert locust and to form working rooms for preparation of daily periodic reports on the agricultural pests, especially the desert locust the breeding period of which he said is connected with the rainfall and winter crop production regions. He said the locust swarms which appeared in the Northern State crossed the Red Sea and the Mediterranean and found a suitable climate, directly affecting the winter crops. Abbaker said the operations of fighting the grasshopper that have recently started in Kabkabiyah, Kutum and Saraf Omra localities have covered 50% of the targeted area of 5,000 hectares. Abbaker reviewed the excessive damage caused by the grasshopper on the sorghum and millet and announced formation of a pest control operations room for the next agricultural season. In the same respect, the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources in Kassala State, Majzoub Abu Mussa, stated that his State is so far free of desert locust, yet they are prepared for it. He said he had held a meeting with the Plant Protection Department for assessment of the desert locust situation in the State so far. FAO warning: The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned all countries which are engaged in the desert locust control operations to rely on products most suitable for their environment and to use the most appropriate spraying equipment so as to minimize risks to the environment and to the human and animal health. FAO encourages implementation of field experiments on the use of such alternative products as the biological insecticides. The desert locust spreads in numerous Asian and African states, attacking date palms, various fruit trees, decorative trees, field crops, vegetables, vegetation and wild trees. A desert locust consumes food twice its weight, i.e., two grams, a day and the swarms spread over an area that stretches for one square kilometer to hundreds of square kilometer, numbering around 50 million on each square kilometer for a medium-density swarm which numbers from several millions to tens of thousands of millions. The desert locust swarms travel over distances ranging from several to more than a hundred kilometers a day, that is, more than 3,500 kilometers a month. Each ton of locust, that is a fraction of a swarm, devours each day devours food that is equals the eight of 10lephants or 25 camels or 2,400 persons. Russian scientist was the first one to discover two kinds of locust- individual grasshoppers that t together in groups and fly in one direction and locust adults that tend to fly in a circle that widens and rises gradually until they take a straight line flight. E N D Mas 
The Director of the Plant Protection Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation said FAO has not provided any support for control of the desert locust spreading in a number of the Sudan’s states. FAO headquarters in Rome and its regional office in Cairo have not offered any assistance to the Sudan for combating the locust, although he said his Department has sent an formal letter to FAO Cairo office asking for help.
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