The Control of the Desert Locusts (Schistocerca Gregaria) in Somalia During the Upsurge Between 2019 and 2021

Abstract

The desert "empty quarter" area of Saudi Arabia, together with Oman and, Yemen, was hit by a cyclone in May 2018, that resulted in vegetation flourishing and enabled the locust population present to increase 400-fold over the following six months. Following a second cyclone in October 2018, the population continued to increase an estimated 8000-fold. Swarms of these locusts in March 2019 flew east into southern Iran and thence to India and Pakistan. A change in wind direction enabled others to fly south into Yemen, where a civil war hindered any control operations. From Yemen, swarms moved to Ethiopia and Somalia in October 2019 and later into Kenya. In contrast to most countries, nomadic pastoralists in Somalia are nearly two-thirds of the population and occupy about two-thirds of the country. The ecology of nomadic pastoralism is an adaptation to an environment in which the availability of water and grass are critical factors. The life of pastoralists differs significantly from sedentary agriculturalists and is based on natural resource management that respects the limitations imposed on their environment, the necessity for mobility. The programme confirmed the importance of using the biopesticide to protect the environment from the use of potentially hazardous chemical insecticides and the use of the less hazardous IGR pesticide as a barrier treatment on large areas of hopper bands to reduce the number and size of swarms enabling easier targeting with the biopesticide. It also indicated that there were a number of Key challenges that had to be faced, namely: Difficulty in carrying out field evaluations during intensive control operations. Remoteness of control areas where caged experiments could not be conducted. Limited number of government officers capable of carrying out field/laboratory assessments. Lack of suitable laboratory facilities to carry out subsequent observations on field collected samples. Narrow daily window for control operations with Metarhizium acridum operations are required as the air temperature quickly rises beyond 30° C as early as 11.00 am. Sparse vegetation cover in semiarid areas affecting barrier treatment approach using aircraft