East Africa is experiencing the most serious outbreak of locusts in 25 years, posing an unprecedented threat to food security. Unusual climate conditions are partly to blame and farmers are asking the government to act.
About 400 million people could be at risk for flooding by the end of the century should the Greenland ice shelf continue to melt at its current pace, according to a new study.JOHANNESBURG -- Locusts by the millions are nibbling their way across a large part of Africa in the worst outbreak some places have seen in 70 years. Is this another effect of a changing climate? Yes, researchers say. An unprecedented food security crisis may be the result.
“A typical desert locust swarm can contain up to 150 million locusts per square kilometer,” the East African regional body, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, has said. “Swarms migrate with the wind and can cover 100 to 150 kilometers in a day. An average swarm can destroy as much food crops in a day as is sufficient to feed 2,500 people.”
Kenya hasn’t seen a locust outbreak like this in 70 years, Rosanne Marchesich, emergency response leader with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, said Wednesday. “Uganda has not had to deal with a locust infestation since the ‘60s so there is concern about the ability for experts on the ground to be able to deal with it without external support,” Marchesich said. “And in a country like South Sudan, already 47% of the population is food insecure.”
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