Locust Invasion: Region needs $4m to fight plague

Countries in east, central and southern Africa need over US$4 million to battle a locust plague  that is threatening the food security of the majority of people who depend on agriculture for survival, a senior official of the International Red Locust Control Organisation for Central and Southern Africa (IRLCO – CSA) says.

Moses Okhoba, director of the locust prevention agency, told Zimpapers Syndication on the side-lines of a UN Food and Agriculture Organisation emergency technical meeting held last week to tackle an outbreak of crop-eating insects sweeping across several African countries, that underfunding of locust management programmes was threatening the region’s major staple crop – maize.

“We need US$4 million to tackle the problem,” he said. “Frontlines (the worst affected) states are carrying the major burden and protecting the entire region. We need more resources to get a spray aircraft and implement locust control programmes.”

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