{"id":858,"date":"2020-02-21T15:30:31","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T15:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emergingag.com\/?p=858"},"modified":"2020-02-21T15:30:31","modified_gmt":"2020-02-21T15:30:31","slug":"east-africa-food-security-harnessing-new-technologies-for-desert-locust-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emergingag.com\/fr\/east-africa-food-security-harnessing-new-technologies-for-desert-locust-control\/","title":{"rendered":"East Africa Food Security: Harnessing New Technologies for Desert Locust Control"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seven East African countries have been plagued by a deadly desert locust invasion exposing the already \u201cseverely food insecure\u201d region to a possible humanitarian crisis. This is the worst invasion in the region in the last 25 years and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)<\/a> is appealing to donors to raise $76 million to control the invasion. The $76 million only represents the amount required to control the pest and does not account for harvest losses and other impacts. If not well managed, the figure could multiply. Between 2003 and 2005, the world experienced a major locust plague that cost more than half a billion dollars to control and more than $2.5 billion in harvest losses.<\/p>\n

The desert locust is the most destructive of all food-eating locust species and has the capacity to eat as much food in a day as 84 million people (FAO<\/a>). In addition to posing a serious food security threat and placing a huge financial burden on already struggling economies, locust invasions have other impacts. The huge amounts of pesticides used for control have environmental impacts. Over 13 million litres of pesticide were used to control the invasion from 2003 – 2005. Millions of people lost their livelihoods in the wake of the invasion. A less addressed impact of these invasions is the link to outbreaks of \u201cepidemics of human pathogens, such as cholera (because of the massive quantities of decomposing locust cadavers that would accumulate on beaches after swarms flew out to see and drowned). The stats on the current invasion in East Africa have not been confirmed but it has been projected that the invasion which started in December 2019 could continue up to June 2020. The locusts, already in the hundreds of billions, could multiply up to 500 times by June and pose a humanitarian crisis that may get out of control. With the current control efforts seriously under-resourced (only $21 million raised so far), only time will tell the extent of the damage.<\/p>\n

Scaling up control efforts is paramount to combating the plague before it escalates to a full-blown humanitarian crisis. In Kenya, scientists are calling for the use of advanced technology, specifically drones, to contain the spread of the invasion, noting that the aircrafts currently being used for aerial spraying are overwhelmed. Furthermore, they are concerned that the aircrafts are not able to access deep valleys and mountain contours that may be infested with the locusts.<\/p>\n

The potential of drone technology in desert locust control has been under investigation by FAO and its partners and the dLOCUST<\/a> is one of the drone technologies currently under research and development by FAO. This drone solution is expected to overcome some of the challenges of the current surveillance systems and will be integrated with current survey activities to:<\/p>\n