Even in those countries where the government is making locust response an essential activity and allowing teams to move, special care needs to be taken to reduce the threats that aid workers and control officers spread the virus to remote rural locations where locust control operations take place. Border closures and delays posed by quarantine measures are imposing restrictions on the movement of personnel and equipment to aid in the locust response. In particular, the pandemic is disrupting the supply chains for pesticides and other equipment necessary to control the spread of locusts.ДЄddressing the locust crisis seriously also faces significant constraints. Local agri-food supply chains are already experiencing disruptions, including reduced access to inputs and services, labor movement, transport and roadblocks, and credit or liquidity due to COVID-19. By itself, the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to create a severe food security crisis in Africa, as elsewhere, as agricultural production contracts and food imports decline. The locust crisis overlaps with the COVID-19 pandemic, creating a crisis within a crisis. How is COVID-19 impacting the locust response?ДЄ. A recent joint impact assessment report by the Government of Ethiopia and FAO estimates that the desert locust outbreak in Ethiopia alone has caused 356,286 metric tons of cereal loss, along with destruction of 197,163 ha of cropland and 1,350,000 ha of pasturelands, with more than 1 million Ethiopians in need of food assistance as result. As of mid-April 2020, 23 countries have been affected: 9 in the wider East Africa region, 11 in North Africa & the Middle East, and 3 in South Asia. What countries are currently affected by this?ДЄ. The impact on communities is also likely to be long-term, affecting their ability to rebuild savings, regrow crops and livestock, and to weather future shocks. The current situation could affect their livelihood and their means of survival in the coming months. This locust invasion coincides with the long rainy season and comes at a time when farming communities are preparing to harvest their crops between the months of March and April.

Without broad scale control, conservative estimates for locust-related losses including for staple crops, livestock production, and asset damages are estimated at US$8.5 billion for countries in the wider East Africa region, Djibouti and Yemen. What is the potential impact of the outbreak?ДЄ. Ultimately, it cost over $450 million to end the 2003-2005 plague, which caused an estimated $2.5 billion in crop damage. The cost of response during the last major locust outbreak in 2003-05 in West Africa, grew from $1 million in June 2003 to $100 million just 14 months later. These impacts on the food cycle could drastically threaten livelihoods, erode peopleвЂ™s savings, and push people further into poverty. The locusts further threaten their food security and their ability to access pasture for livestock.

Within the region, 24 million people are food insecure and 8 million are internally displaced. If left unchecked, the number of desert locusts could grow by 400 times by June, as each generation has a 20-fold increase in population on average. In the wider East Africa region, the above average rainy season in March and April created favorable conditions for locusts to breed вЂ“ increasing their number and the areas they could spread to. Why is this outbreak so serious and could it get worse?ДЄ. This is a single global outbreak, and if it reaches plague levels, it could cover 20 percent of the earthвЂ™s land mass. The crisis has affected 23 countries to date, from Pakistan to Tanzania. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says these swarms represent the worst infestation in 25 years in Ethiopia and Somalia, in 26 years in India, and the worst in 70 years in Kenya. Swarms of desert locusts are threatening large areas of pastures and crops, overwhelming countries in the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. Locusts do not attack people or animals.ДЄ.

Locusts breed very fast and- a single female locust can lay egg pods containing anywhere from 80- 150 eggs. A small swarm (1 km 2) can be made up of 80 million locusts and can consume the same amount of food in one day as 35,000 people, while a large swarm can eat up to 1.8 million metric tons of green vegetation, equivalent to food enough to feed 81 million people. The Desert Locust ( Schistocerca gregaria), found in various parts of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, is considered the most destructive migratory pest in the world because they are highly mobile and can form swarms containing millions of locusts, leading to devastating impacts on crops, pasture and fodder. Locusts belong to a family of grasshoppers called Acrididae. What is a locust and why is it so damaging?ДЄ.

Mass effect 3 locust