Mpho TebeleGaborone – An anticipated bumper harvest in Southern Africa is under threat from swarms of locusts, two United Nations agencies have warned. In a new report, the Food and Agriculture Organisation and World Food Programme said the threat posed by locusts was particularly high in five SADC member states. The report says the harvest prospects are good, an assessment given earlier by the SADC Security Early Warning Systems Agromet Update. Now the continued presence of African migratory locusts (AML) could result in losses. Media reports from Zimbabwe indicate locusts have ravaged more than 8,000ha of sorghum, millet and maize in the southeast of the country, with the infestation described as the worst in decades.

Source: The North Africa Journal March 26, 2021 11:29 UTC