{"id":18573,"date":"2023-05-10T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-10T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/locust-outbreak-in-afghanistan-threatens-wheat-harvest\/"},"modified":"2023-05-10T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T12:00:00","slug":"locust-outbreak-in-afghanistan-threatens-wheat-harvest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=18573","title":{"rendered":"Locust outbreak in Afghanistan threatens wheat harvest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The UN\u2019s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) sounded the alarm on Wednesday after locusts were spotted in the country\u2019s north and northeast. FAO said that a \u201cfull outbreak\u201d this year could <strong>destroy up to 1.2 million metric tonnes of wheat<\/strong>, or a quarter of the total annual harvest.<\/p>\n<p>FAO Representative in Afghanistan Richard Trenchard said that together with partners, the agency was racing to help reduce the impact of the outbreak.<\/p>\n<p>With pesticides in short supply, thousands of people in communities across the affected provinces were working \u201cday and night\u201d to eradicate the pests using \u201ctraditional mechanical control methods\u201d before they become adults and begin to swarm, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Left untreated, the Moroccan Locust population <strong>could increase 100-fold in the next year<\/strong>, according to FAO.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, the UN World Food Programme warned that six million Afghans were one step away from famine.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>\u2018Huge concern\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Sightings of locusts at different development stages have been made in Badakhshan, Badghis, Baghlan, Balkh, Kunduz, Samangan, Sar-e-Pul and Takhar, with fresh reports coming in from Heart and Ghor provinces.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe reports of Moroccan Locust outbreak in Afghanistan\u2019s wheat basket\u00a0<strong><a>is\u00a0a huge concern<\/strong>\u201d, said Mr. Trenchard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Moroccan locust eats more than 150 species of plants, including tree crops, pastures and 50 food crops, all of which grow in Afghanistan. It <strong>represents an enormous threat to farmers, communities and the entire country<\/strong>,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>He noted that the last two big infestations which took place 20 and 40 years ago, cost the country an estimated 8 per cent, and 25 per cent of production.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHarvest forecasts this year are the best we have seen for the last three years \u2013 but this outbreak threatens to destroy all these recent gains and dramatically worsen the food insecurity situation later this year and into next year,\u201d the FAO Representative continued.<\/p>\n<p>The Moroccan Locust is ranked among the most economically damaging plant pests anywhere in the world, and the value of the <strong>potential loss, adds up to between $280 million and a staggering $480 million<\/strong>, going by today\u2019s prices, FAO warned.<\/p>\n<p>The agency said that the year had seen \u201cperfect\u201d conditions for a locust outbreak so far, in the north and northeast, with over-grazing, drought and very limited control measures, creating an \u201cideal environment for locusts to hatch and swarm.\u201d<\/p>\n<div data-quickedit-entity-id=\"media\/109642\" class=\"context-un_news_full_width_credit_caption type-entermedia_image media media--type-entermedia-image media--view-mode-un-news-full-width-credit-caption\">\n<div class=\"field field--name-thumbnail field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item\"><\/div>\n<p>Moroccan locusts are poured into a pit during mechanical control in Baghlan, Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2><strong>Swinging into action<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>\u201cThe alarm bells rang late, but <strong>FAO, its incredible NGO partners, local communities and local authorities sprang into immediate action<\/strong>,\u201d said Mr. Trenchard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChemical supplies were low across the country so we were forced to focus on traditional \u2018mechanical control\u2019 methods to reduce the impact of the outbreak.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said that cash-for-work had been a way \u201cto\u00a0<a>put money into the pockets of farmers most at risk while\u00a0accelerating mechanical control in communities across the North and Northeast regions\u201d, and there had been \u201ca strong, rapid and encouraging response from the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, although their capacity to respond is heavily constrained by a lack of resources\u201d.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Ominous threat<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Typically, after decimating pasture, large locust hopper bands and adult\u00a0swarms move down to cropland areas and eat rain-fed and irrigated wheat and other crops.<\/p>\n<p>FAO warned that there is not a single crop which is spared from Moroccan Locust damage.<\/p>\n<p>If numbers do increase up to 100-fold, it would create even bigger problems for agriculture and food security in Afghanistan, and neighbouring countries.<\/p>\n<p>If the Moroccan locust population is left untreated, it could increase its numbers by 100-fold in the next year, creating even bigger problems for agriculture and food security for Afghanistan and that of its neighbours.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChemical control methods are far more effective than mechanical control\u201d, said Mr. Trenchard.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfghanistan <strong>used to have a very strong locust control system<\/strong> in place.\u00a0 But this has been heavily eroded in the last two years. At this point in time, all we can hope is that the mechanical control approaches will reduce the overall impact of the swarms.\u00a0 But <strong>we must start now to prevent 2024 from seeing even bigger outbreaks<\/strong>\u201d, he concluded.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2023\/05\/1136527\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The UN\u2019s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) sounded the alarm on Wednesday after locusts were spotted&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.0 (Yoast SEO v28.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Locust outbreak in Afghanistan threatens wheat harvest - Gulf Times | News by the minute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2023\/05\/1136527\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Locust outbreak in Afghanistan threatens wheat harvest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gulf News| UAE&#039;s Largest News aggregator site\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2023\/05\/1136527\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gulf Times | News by the minute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-10T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Libraries\/Production%20Library\/10-05-2023-FAO-Afghanistan-locusts-01.jpg\/image1170x530cropped.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Locust outbreak in Afghanistan threatens wheat harvest - Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2023\/05\/1136527","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Locust outbreak in Afghanistan threatens wheat harvest","og_description":"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site","og_url":"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2023\/05\/1136527","og_site_name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","article_published_time":"2023-05-10T12:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Libraries\/Production%20Library\/10-05-2023-FAO-Afghanistan-locusts-01.jpg\/image1170x530cropped.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"gulftimes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_site":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"gulftimes","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2023\/05\/1136527#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=18573"},"author":{"name":"gulftimes","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977"},"headline":"Locust outbreak in Afghanistan threatens wheat harvest","datePublished":"2023-05-10T12:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=18573"},"wordCount":689,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2023\/05\/1136527#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Libraries\/Production%20Library\/10-05-2023-FAO-Afghanistan-locusts-01.jpg\/image1170x530cropped.jpg","articleSection":["Asia Pacific"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2023\/05\/1136527#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=18573","url":"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2023\/05\/1136527","name":"Locust outbreak in Afghanistan threatens wheat harvest - Gulf Times | News by the minute","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2023\/05\/1136527#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2023\/05\/1136527#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Libraries\/Production%20Library\/10-05-2023-FAO-Afghanistan-locusts-01.jpg\/image1170x530cropped.jpg","datePublished":"2023-05-10T12:00:00+00:00","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2023\/05\/1136527#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2023\/05\/1136527"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2023\/05\/1136527#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Libraries\/Production%20Library\/10-05-2023-FAO-Afghanistan-locusts-01.jpg\/image1170x530cropped.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Libraries\/Production%20Library\/10-05-2023-FAO-Afghanistan-locusts-01.jpg\/image1170x530cropped.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2023\/05\/1136527#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Locust outbreak in Afghanistan threatens wheat harvest"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Largest News Aggregator in the Gulf","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"alternateName":"Gulf News Aggregator","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization","name":"Gulf Times","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"Gulf Times"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","https:\/\/x.com\/Gulftimesuae"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977","name":"gulftimes","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"gulftimes"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/gulftimes.ae"],"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}