Locust infestations: Supporting affected communities

East Africa is currently experiencing the largest locust infestation in decades. Parts of South Asia and the Middle East are also affected. Due to the rapid reproduction of the insects, the spread of the swarms can hardly be stopped. People are losing their livelihoods and suffering existential distress. In combination with extreme weather conditions such as droughts and floods, conflicts and the coronavirus pandemic, East Africa is now threatened by a worsening food insecurity and hunger. We are working on the ground to support the affected communities and secure their livelihood.

Huge swarms of locusts are capable of devoring whole farmlands within minutes. The livelihoods of millions of people in East Africa have been threatened. The swarms consist of hundreds of millions of desert locusts and some of them cover an area of almost 2,500 square kilometers. The first swarms moved over the Horn of Africa as early as the end of 2019, affecting communities in Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Southern Sudan and Kenya.

Climate change has had an impact on locust infestations. According to experts, the "Indian Ocean Dipole" is responsible for this. The weather phenomenon describes a naturally occurring anomaly of the sea surface temperature in the Indian Ocean. This only occurs every four to six years. However, 2019 and 2020 have seen successive occurrences of the dipole.

At the same time, sea surface in the eastern part of the Indian Ocean is unusually cool, thus creating high air pressure on land. For Australia, which borders the ocean, this phenomenon means, for instance, long dry periods, which have led to the devastating bush fires. Eastern winds drive the cool air across the ocean to the African coast in the west. Along the way, the atmosphere absorbs more moisture and heats up. This results in torrential rainfall and flooding, which in turn dramatically increases the risk of a locust infestation.

In many countries, locusts have already become a part of the diet because they are particularly rich in protein. Therefore, the fundamental question is whether the insects are suitable to ward off hunger when other food sources becomes scarce. However, researchers explicitly advise against eating the animals, as they eat poisonous plants in large swarms and thus become poisonous themselves.

If the pests are controlled using pesticides, eating them may also pose a danger to humans. Furthermore, given the size of the swarms, it is seldom possible to catch the locusts in sufficient time before they cause any damage

Although the extent of the locust infestation in East Africa was foreseeable, reaction to the emegency was late. Many regions lack the adequate resources to combat the infestation effectively. Nevertheless, with the help of agricultural experts, governments have now begun to contain the spread and bring the situation under control.

Desert locusts can be stopped using chemicals, such as pesticides. However, the widespread use of pesticides also poses a threat to the population, animals and plants in the short and long term. Research is ongoing into other biological control methods, such as using fungal spores that attack and kill the insects.