In 2012,

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

had an upsurge in the size of its Malagasy migratory locust (''Locusta migratoria capito'') populations. In November of that year, the government issued a locust alert, saying that conditions were right for

swarming Swarm behaviour, or swarming, is a collective behaviour exhibited by entities, particularly animals, of similar size which aggregate together, perhaps milling about the same spot or perhaps moving ''en masse'' or migrating in some direction. ...

of the

pest insect Economic entomology is a field of entomology, which involves the study of insects that benefit or harm humans, domestic animals, and crops. Insects that cause losses are termed as pests. Some species can cause indirect damage by spreading diseases ...

s. In February 2013,

Cyclone Haruna Tropical Cyclone Haruna was a deadly storm that produced widespread flooding and a disease outbreak in southwestern Madagascar. The ninth system of the season, Haruna developed in the Mozambique channel in the middle of February 2013 between Moz ...

struck the country, creating optimal conditions for locust breeding. By late March 2013, approximately 50% of the country was infested by swarms of locusts, with each swarm consisting of more than one billion insects. The authorities changed the situation to plague status. According to one eyewitness,"You don't see anything except locusts. You turn around, there are locusts everywhere". News of the infestation went global the week before

Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday that celebrates the The Exodus, Biblical story of the Israelites escape from slavery in Ancient Egypt, Egypt, which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew calendar, He ...

, inspiring comparisons with the Biblical

Plagues of Egypt The Plagues of Egypt, in the account of the book of Exodus, are ten disasters inflicted on Biblical Egypt by the God of Israel in order to convince the Pharaoh to emancipate the enslaved Israelites, each of them confronting Pharaoh and one of hi ...

, one of which was a swarm of locusts. It is the worst locust outbreak in Madagascar since a 17-year-long outbreak which began during the 1950s.

Pest control

On March 26, 2013, the

Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

(FAO) of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

called for

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

41 million of donations to fight the locusts. Under the proposed aid plan, $22 million would be delivered by June for pest control efforts and $19 million would be devoted to a three-year plan to keep the insect in check. According to the FAO report, the infestation threatens 60% of the country's rice crop, as well as livestock pastures. Rice is a

staple crop A staple food, food staple, or simply a staple, is a food that is eaten often and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a standard diet for a given person or group of people, supplying a large fraction of energy needs and ...

in Madagascar, a nation where a large percentage of the population lives in famine conditions. In the southwestern region of Madagascar, where the locusts are the worst, 80% of the population lives in poverty. The FAO plan calls for large-scale aerial operations to spray extra

pesticide Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests. This includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, microbicide, fungicide, and lampri ...

s over 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres) of land from 2013 to 2014. According to the national Locust Control Centre, 100,000 out of 130,000

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s (257,000 out of 321,000 acres) of vulnerable crop land had not been treated at the time of the FAO proposal. If no action is taken, the FAO estimates that two-thirds of Madagascar will be infested by September, and says the infestation could last for five to ten years. "Failure to respond now will lead to massive food aid requirements later on," said Dominique Burgeon, Director of the FAO Emergency and Rehabilitation Division. Additionally, the infestation threatens the habitat of numerous

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

, especially several species of lemur.

References

{{reflist, 30em

External links

FAO minisite
on the locust outbreak
FAO plan
to combat the outbreak
FAO video
on the locust outbreak Locust Locust Locust swarms Natural disasters in Madagascar 2013 disasters in Madagascar

Pest control

See also

References

External links