Paper Example on East African Locust Crisis: A Growing Plague

Introduction

In recent times, The East African region has been faced with a crisis which the region terms it like a plague. The crisis began in late 2019 when a swarm of desert locusts invaded the region. Since then, the region has struggled to eliminate these locusts, but the crisis seems to be getting out of hand. Despite the various measures taken by the different governments in the region, the locust spread seems to overwhelm the region. The swarms pose a food supply shortage since they descend on pasturelands and crops and feed on everything within hours.

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Main Culprits

The locusts came up as a result of the heavy rainfall that led to blooms of vegetables in their natural habitat areas in the Middle East and Africa. The main culprits of the desert locusts are the Arabian Peninsula and Eastern Africa. This is due to the prolonged period of wet weather and unusual cyclones that the regions experienced for the last eighteen months (Salih, Baraibar, Mwangi, & Artan, 2020). The Indian Ocean Dipoles are linked to the storminess and constant bushfires across Eastern Australia. The locusts have also been viewed as signs of significant things to come in the future due to the climate changes and increase in the temperature around the sea surface. With the continuous cyclones, the outbreak of locusts is expected to increase in the Horn of Africa sharply.

The Cyclone

The locusts are traced back in May 2018 when a cyclone passed over a vast, scarcely populated desert in the Southern Arabian Peninsula. The cyclone filled the spaces between sand dunes with temporary water bodies. As a result of their freely breeding and reproducing in such areas, the desert locusts greatly multiplied, giving rise to the first wave. The locusts are said to be having a life span of almost three months. On maturity, the adult locusts lay eggs that hatch under optimum conditions to new generations, which are twenty times greater than the preceding generation. With this growth rate, the locusts are able to multiply their population size greatly over a series of generational reproductions. The 2018 cyclones gave rise to almost three generations of the desert locusts in a time span of nine months. This led to an increase in the number of locusts in the Arabian Desert significantly.

Later in summer 2019, the locusts began their migration towards the Gulf of Aden in Ethiopia, Somalia, and the Red Sea. While in these places, the locusts continued with their breeding for the following months. The migration stopped at these areas as a result of the autumn rainfall in October and later a cyclone that caused a landfall. As a result of these events, the reproduction of the locusts significantly increased.

Other Parts of the Region

After their multiplication, the locust moved from Somalia an Ethiopia to other parts of the region. Currently, the locusts are in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and some parts of Uganda. After getting into these areas, the desert locusts have infested on the crops and pasture, leaving the area with a threat to livelihood and food security.

With the continuous rains in the area, the situation is getting even worse as the desert locusts are reproduced at a very high rate. As of June 2020, the locust's generations had greatly increased, causing extensive devastation of the area's pasture and crop. With the region already being faced with famine and food shortage, the locusts are already worsening the situation. Currently, the swarms have attacked Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, and Eritrea. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), approximately thirteen million people in these countries are faced with food insecurity. Another twenty million people are on the brink of starvation a result of the locusts.

According to FAO, the swarm can consume almost two hundred tonnes of any kind of vegetation. Upon completion of particular place vegetation, the swarm moves relentlessly to another place. Desert locusts are known for traveling a vast distance in a day. The locusts are causing significant destruction to various economies, and the impacts are felt mainly by vulnerable farmers.

In most parts of the region, the planting season is always when the first rains hit the ground in March and April. Most farmers prepared their lands and planted their crops. However, the planting season coincided with the emergence of a new swarm generation. The unusual climatic and weather changes are the main contributors to the continuing breeding of the locusts in the area (Devi, 2020). Upon landing the swarms on a given planted land, the locusts eat up the entire vegetation. Most farmers in the region have nothing to show in their lands since all their crops were infested on by the locust. This is a livelihood threat to the farmers since most of these country's populations rely on agriculture for their living.

In the past two months, the region was filled with nymphs or the band of hoppers. These are immature locusts at an early age. The wind patterns mainly favor the spread of these locusts to many parts of the region. The locusts are also growing at an alarming rate and reproducing more swarms.

Governement Aid

Intending to help the region, the governments and the aid organizations are striving to bring the crisis under control and preventing its worsening. In helping combat the situation, FAO has urged the international community to contribute seventy-six million dollars for protecting the pastoralists and farmers as well as pest control in the affected countries. With the current food crisis in the region, the countries’ economies are adversely affected since they have to import food from well-doing countries to sustain their citizen’s livelihood. Additionally, more funds that would be of use in various sectors of the economy are now channeled towards the fight against the locusts.

Currently, the countries are using trained operatives to combat the locusts' spread by spraying the swarms with insecticides. However, the actions taken aren't effective in eliminating the locusts from the region. Most experts have advised the countries that the best and most effective way of combating the situation entirely is by improving the understanding of the locusts. By understanding the locusts, the countries and the aid organizations will be able to predict the swarm movements and act before the swarm cause major impacts.

Conclusion

Thus, the topic gives an insight into how different geographical aspects have an impact on human beings. Unpredicted climatic changes have caused great effects on the environment, such as drought, famine, and cyclones. Changes in climatic conditions may offer a conducive environment for the breeding of creatures such as the locusts, which may be dangerous to human survival.

References

Devi, S. (2020). Locust swarms in east Africa could be “a catastrophe”. The Lancet, 395(10224), 547.

Oxford Analytica. East Africa locusts pose major food security threat. Emerald Expert Briefings, (oxan-es).

Salih, A. A., Baraibar, M., Mwangi, K. K., & Artan, G. (2020). Climate change and locust outbreak in East Africa. Nature Climate Change, 1-2.