Now locusts are destroying crops that could have been a lifeline. A square-kilometre swarm can consume the same amount of food in one day as 35,000 people. Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Sudan are among the worst-hit countries and the outbreak threatens to spread wider, the IRC says.
Locusts can fly up to two kilometres in the air and have even been reported to travel over whole oceans. It can comprise tens of millions of locusts, each eating their own weight in food every day. However, we hope that by conducting further research we might find better ways to break up swarms using similar methods.
India has been using drones and helicopters to spray insecticides, in a bid to protect their crops from a swarm of locusts. The decision was made after swarms invaded Gurugram, a satellite city of the capital New Delhi. Farmers have also been warned of a new wave of locusts coming across the Indian Ocean from Somalia.
Image: REUTERS/Njeri Mwangi The locusts devoured Ibrahim’s small grazing plot as his donkeys brayed anxiously and goats scrambled to eat the remaining foliage. Scenes like this are happening across the Horn of Africa, where swarms of desert locusts have damaged tens of thousands of hectares so far, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO ...
Locusts are putting 5 million people at risk of starvation – and that’s ...
India to use helicopter and drones to stop swarm of locusts | World ...
Vast swarms of locusts are robbing Africans of their food and livelihood
Inspired by a project in Pakistan, a start-up called The Bug Picture is helping African communities harvest, mill and profit from locusts.