COVID-19, super cyclone, and now locusts!

India is bracing for a desert locust invasion. Already battling the coronavirus pandemic and the devastation wreaked by cyclone Amphan, this threat could have disastrous consequences to agriculture and to health, livelihoods and food security as well.

Experts have warned that a huge locust attack is expected, moving from East Africa to India and Pakistan and could be accompanied by other swarms. Forecasting officers have already flagged this as the worst locust situation in decades.

A swarm of locusts that travelled to the Indian border reached Rajasthan’s Ajmer district last week. According to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, “Locust swarm has entered Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, threatening major damage to standing cotton crops and vegetables. Rajasthan is the most affected state. During the current year, the swarm of locusts has entered India earlier than their normal time of June and July. States are adopting various means for controlling the swarms.”

The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) warned that more invasions by the insects were likely from new areas and pose a ‘severe risk’ to India’s agriculture this year. This has prompted the authorities to step up vigil, deploy drones to detect their movement and hold talks with neighbouring countries to employ measures to counter and minimize damage.

According to the FAO, hopper bands of the desert locust are maturing in several regions across Asia. These swarms can devour large amounts of vegetation and crops. An adult desert locust can consume its own weight in fresh food per day. Just one small swarm can eat the same amount of crops in a day as 35,000 people. If the numbers of locusts is not contained, the impact on crops and vegetation will drive up hunger in regions already struggling with high levels of food insecurity.

India does have a proper structure that is in place to tackle the locust crisis. The established system includes Locust Officers who are authorized people with environmental and agricultural backgrounds who keep track and analyze the situation and implement measures and take necessary action.

Keith Cressman, senior locust forecaster at the FAO, in his article in the Nikkai Asian Review, has an ominous warning, “As the world focuses on the insidious spread of the coronavirus, one of the most notorious migratory pests, the desert locust, has been charting its own path of destruction from the Arabian Peninsula to East Africa and as far east as Pakistan and India. It is the worst outbreak of desert locusts to strike the Horn of Africa in decades. For Ethiopia and Somalia it is the biggest in 25 years, and the worst in Kenya for 70 years”

He adds, “But the devastation is not confined to Africa. Heavy rains caused by a spate of cyclones in the Indian Ocean in 2018 and 2019 created ideal conditions for the locusts to breed. Swarms have been reported in Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, and it is already in South Asia. Now is the time for the world to act.”

There are four types of locusts that plague the subcontinent, namely, the desert locust, migratory locust, Bombay locust and tree locust. This year, the swarms building up are of the desert locust.

According to Cressman, “A desert locust respects no borders. It can travel up to 150 kilometers a day and eat its own weight in food, about two grams daily. A single swarm measuring one sq. kilometer can contain up to 80 million locusts, while most swarms are about 10-500 sq. kilometers.”

Considered the most destructive migratory pest in the world, a swarm of desert locust containing around 40 million locusts can consume (or destroy) food that would suffice the hunger need of 35,000 people, assuming that one person consumes around 2.3 kg of food every day.

As per the Locust Warning Organization (LWO), India has not seen any locust upsurges since December 2011 and the cases had decreased drastically after the advent of new technologies in the agricultural sector including advancement in the pest control market. The country has been hit by locust plague several times between 1812 and 1997. A moderate infestation swallowed crops across an estimated 300,000 hectares in Rajasthan and Gujarat in January. This upsurge in locust attacks since last year is being attributed to favourable breeding weather caused by a large number of cyclones in East Africa. India, China and Pakistan face the most risk in Asia.