The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Livestock in North Darfur, Sudan has warned that widespread locust swarms are expected with the onset of the upcoming rainy season, which may cause such damage to crops as to endanger the entire summer agricultural season in the state. Salha Salim Naji, a plant protection specialist at the state’s Ministry of Agriculture, called on the competent authorities in the federal and state governments to start taking the necessary measures and measures for immediate intervention to combat the pest with the beginning of the rainy season, where the breeding explosion will begin in the so-called ‘out break’. In Sudan young grasshoppers and adults form groups in those areas that remain green after the summer rains. A swarm of locusts covering a square kilometer can eat between 80 and 160 tons of crops a day, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) calculates. An adult desert locust can eat its own weight of about 2 grammes daily

Source: The North Africa Journal May 10, 2022 06:29 UTC