Rome - A locust plague is threatening several west African nations and could affect the Middle East this spring, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned on Monday.
In a statement, the Rome-based agency said exceptional rains in early 2003 had initiated locust breeding over wide areas, with another exceptional rainfall in October 2003 allowing further generations of locusts to breed sufficiently to produce swarms.
"The locust situation continues to deteriorate in the western and northern areas of Mauritania, and in the Western Sahara," FAO said. "Those that escape control are likely to move into Algeria and Morocco within a matter of weeks or even days, where a further cycle of breeding may take place in spring."
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FAO said a locust outbreak was also in progress on the Red Sea coast in Saudi Arabia and warned that despite intensive control operations, some of these were expected to move into the central interior of the country where a further generation of breeding could occur.
| 'The locust situation continues to deteriorate' |
"It is possible that a few swarms could reach adjacent areas in Jordan, southern Iraq and western Iran later in the year," FAO said.
Locust swarms can travel for thousands of kilometres between summer, winter and spring breeding areas and are capable of causing devastating damage to crops.
The United Nations agency was appealing to donor countries for $6-million (about R40-million) needed to support desert locust control operations in Mauritania and another $3-million (about R20-million) for Mali, Niger and Chad, in order to prevent the early stages of the current upsurge from developing into a plague. - Sapa-dpa
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