Experts have projected that the outbreak of locusts in Nepal may last for more than a month, and it may hit food security.
The entry of locust swarms into the country after fall armyworm and the Covid-19 pandemic is going to pose food security in Nepal. Food insecurity has also been compounded by coronavirus containment measures like lockdown, which has disrupted production and supply chains.
“A swarm of adult and premature locusts entered Nepal from Bara district via India yesterday,” former director general of the Department of Agriculture Dr Dilliram Sharma said, adding that it may remain in Nepal for around a month. “A premature locust can survive for a month while a mature one can survive around two weeks.”
“If a matured locust cannot lay eggs, it won’t survive for more than two weeks and it has to fly back to Rajasthan in order to lay eggs,” he added.
Likewise, locust, which usually migrates in large numbers – some 80 to 100 million – and destroys crops voraciously, however has entered Nepal in a swarm of few hundred thousands only. “So it could be controlled using insecticides.”
But the locusts, which had entered Nepal from southern plains are now traveling toward the western hilly regions as well. The swarms of locusts were also sighted in various other districts like Rupandehi, Palpa, Bara, Sarlahi, Parsa, Dang and Kathmandu.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) is considered the most dangerous of all migratory pest species in the world. It threatens people’s livelihoods, food security, the environment and economic development. They can reproduce rapidly, migrate long distances, devastate crops and pastures and can easily affect more than 65 of the world’s poorest countries. Nepal might be in for a massive food insecurity, if locusts start ravaging crops amid this Covid-19 pandemic.
The FAO report reads that the desert locust has the ability to change its behaviour and appearance, under particular environmental conditions – unusually heavy rains – and transform itself from a harmless individual to part of a collective mass of insects that form a swarm, which can cross continents and seas, and quickly destroy a farmer’s field and his entire livelihood in a single morning.
Before entering Nepal, the locust must have been sighted in India and Nepali experts failed to monitor their movement, and the government also had claimed that the locust will not enter Nepal. But the government estimation came wrong, as it had happened in the case of coronavirus.
After reports of millions of hectares of land under attack by billions of locusts in Africa, China, Pakistan, and India, the government had formed a five-member task force in late May to study the possibility of their arrival in Nepal. However, a preliminary study by the task force had said that locusts are unlikely to invade Nepal.
Experts also said that the movement of the swarms will depend on the direction of the wind. The wind has been blowing west to the north for the last two days.
According to the FAO, an adult desert locust can consume roughly its own weight in fresh food per day that is about two grams every day. “A one square-kilometer size swarm contains about 40 million locusts, which eat the same amount of food in one day as about 35,000 people, 20 camels or 6 elephants,” the FAO report reads.
After sudden attacks from locusts reported in different districts yesterday, the Agriculture Ministry called an emergency meeting, inviting government officials and experts from all seven provinces, and asked them to be on high alert. “Nepal had experienced its first locust attack in 1962,” according to the ministry. “However, the worst locust attack was observed in 1996 when swarm incursions destroyed 80 per cent of crops in Chitwan and partially damaged crops in Makwanpur, Mahottari and Bara districts.”
The entry of locust swarms into the country after fall armyworm and the Covid-19 pandemic is going to pose food security in Nepal. Food insecurity has also been compounded by coronavirus containment measures like lockdown, which has disrupted production and supply chains.
“A swarm of adult and premature locusts entered Nepal from Bara district via India yesterday,” former director general of the Department of Agriculture Dr Dilliram Sharma said, adding that it may remain in Nepal for around a month. “A premature locust can survive for a month while a mature one can survive around two weeks.”
“If a matured locust cannot lay eggs, it won’t survive for more than two weeks and it has to fly back to Rajasthan in order to lay eggs,” he added.
Likewise, locust, which usually migrates in large numbers – some 80 to 100 million – and destroys crops voraciously, however has entered Nepal in a swarm of few hundred thousands only. “So it could be controlled using insecticides.”
But the locusts, which had entered Nepal from southern plains are now traveling toward the western hilly regions as well. The swarms of locusts were also sighted in various other districts like Rupandehi, Palpa, Bara, Sarlahi, Parsa, Dang and Kathmandu.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) is considered the most dangerous of all migratory pest species in the world. It threatens people’s livelihoods, food security, the environment and economic development. They can reproduce rapidly, migrate long distances, devastate crops and pastures and can easily affect more than 65 of the world’s poorest countries. Nepal might be in for a massive food insecurity, if locusts start ravaging crops amid this Covid-19 pandemic.
The FAO report reads that the desert locust has the ability to change its behaviour and appearance, under particular environmental conditions – unusually heavy rains – and transform itself from a harmless individual to part of a collective mass of insects that form a swarm, which can cross continents and seas, and quickly destroy a farmer’s field and his entire livelihood in a single morning.
Before entering Nepal, the locust must have been sighted in India and Nepali experts failed to monitor their movement, and the government also had claimed that the locust will not enter Nepal. But the government estimation came wrong, as it had happened in the case of coronavirus.
After reports of millions of hectares of land under attack by billions of locusts in Africa, China, Pakistan, and India, the government had formed a five-member task force in late May to study the possibility of their arrival in Nepal. However, a preliminary study by the task force had said that locusts are unlikely to invade Nepal.
Experts also said that the movement of the swarms will depend on the direction of the wind. The wind has been blowing west to the north for the last two days.
According to the FAO, an adult desert locust can consume roughly its own weight in fresh food per day that is about two grams every day. “A one square-kilometer size swarm contains about 40 million locusts, which eat the same amount of food in one day as about 35,000 people, 20 camels or 6 elephants,” the FAO report reads.
After sudden attacks from locusts reported in different districts yesterday, the Agriculture Ministry called an emergency meeting, inviting government officials and experts from all seven provinces, and asked them to be on high alert. “Nepal had experienced its first locust attack in 1962,” according to the ministry. “However, the worst locust attack was observed in 1996 when swarm incursions destroyed 80 per cent of crops in Chitwan and partially damaged crops in Makwanpur, Mahottari and Bara districts.”
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