Locust outbreak in Afghanistan's 'breadbasket' threatens wheat harvest
Source: The Guardian
Locust outbreak in Afghanistan’s ‘breadbasket’ threatens wheat harvest
With 20m people at the highest risk of famine for 25 years, farmers are desperately trying to kill the pests before vast swarms form
Lizzy Davies
Thu 11 May 2023 13.47 BST
The northern “breadbasket” of Afghanistan is battling a potentially devastating outbreak of locusts that threaten to eat their way through up to a quarter of the country’s annual wheat harvest, the UN has warned.
After three years of disappointing, drought-afflicted harvests, Afghan farmers were expecting better this year – a much-needed boost for a country where nearly 20 million people are thought to be at the highest risk of famine in 25 years.
But for those in eight key agricultural provinces, mostly in the north and north-east, the large-scale outbreak of Moroccan locusts will probably be “devastating”, according to Richard Trenchard, the UN’s food and agriculture organisation (FAO) country representative.
The FAO estimates that a full outbreak of the Moroccan locust, one of the most economically damaging plant pests in the world, could result in crop losses of between 700,000 and 1.2m tonnes of wheat, the country’s staple grain.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/may/11/locust-outbreak-in-afghanistan-breadbasket-threatens-wheat-harvest
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