Eritrea
Desert Locust Report
January 2021

Background Desert locust is one of the most disastrous pests that draw theworld’s attention and causes great concern due to its seriousness.
 Eritrea is considered globally as one of the principal breeding areasof the pest. It has both summer and winter breeding areas.
 More than half of country land cover , that is 7 million hectares, isfavorable for locust breeding during good climatic condition.
 The winter breeding area is the largest area that covers 4.7 million
hectares and lies along the 1200km length on Red sea coast. It has
also a long rainy season starting from September up to April.
 The Summer breeding area covers 2.3 million hectares and islocated in the Western lowland of the country . It has short rainyseason, usually from June up to September.

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 Here in Eritrea, Desert Locusts is a perennial threat with almostannual outbreaks.
 The country experienced different migratory pest outbreaks, especially
Desert locust incidence, almost every year with different magnitude ofinfestation.
 The government of the State of Eritrea usually pays high priority tocontrol migratory pests to ensure food and nutrition security.
 The government of the State of Eritrea and its partners like DLCO-EAand FAO- CRC exert great effort to minimize the damage caused bythe pest.

Desert Locust Distribution in the world

 Desert Locust invasions threaten more than 60 countries inAfrica, Middle East and Asia. Invaded areas include North,West and Central Africa, Canary Island, Arabic Peninsula,Middle East and North East Turkey and Cyprus, Southernparts of Russia, Iran and Afghanistan and Southern India.
 Affected Area, recession, 16 million square km.
 Affected Area, invasion, 29 million square km.

Desert Locust Distribution in the world

Desert Locust Breeding Seasons in Eritrea

 The Desert Locust breeding seasons are thesummer time (June-September) along the Westernparts of the country.
 The winter time (October-April) on the Coastal

Red Sea area (Eastern Lowlands).

Map of Desert Locust Areas in Eritrea

Biology & Behavior ofDesert Locust

General background of Desert Locusts- Desert Locusts have caused problems for quite a long time. AnEgyptian wall painting from 3425 years ago shows a Desert Locust on apapyrus flower.
- Desert Locust is also mentioned in the Bible and the holly Quran.

- Each Desert Locust can eat its weight of food per day (2 grams) causing

severe damage to crops and rangeland.
- Each Km2 of a dense swarm can contain 50 million locusts eating 100 tonesof vegetation per day.
- A very large swarm can cover 1000 Km2 consuming 100,000 tones ofvegetation per day.

An Egyptian wall painting

What are Locusts?
- Locusts are members of the grasshopper order Orthoptera andfamily Acrididae.
Locusts differ from grasshoppers,- They have the ability to change their behaviour andphysiology.
- They breed in remote areas- They are highly mobile.
Locusts do affect people by:- Damaging crops,- social problems (food and nutrition security).
- Creating political problems

Desert Locust behaviors
Desert Locust has two Phases.
 Solitarious form which is harmless to crops whereas thegregarious phase causes extensive damage.
 Desert locusts travel between 100 and 200 km/day andhave the ability to form dense mobile swarms in the adultstage and hopper bands in the nymphal stage.

• In favourable ecological and meteorological conditions,
locusts concentrate in relatively small areas,• The concentrated adult groups start to change colour
and behaviour and to become gregarious,• The concentrated adult groups become big in size andstart to fly with the wind as swarm migrate to other9
locations
Some swarms can contain 100 million locusts,
Sometimes swarms can fly for 20 hours at a height thatcan reach 1,000 - 1,8000 m from the ground,
Swarms can fly between 100-200 km a day in steadywind, this distance can be reduced to 5km/day in colddays•••

Control Strategies

Surveillance Appropriate attentiveness is one of the most essential procedures that

contribute to the success of Desert Locust preventive control strategies
which usually depends on conducting intensive and frequent surveys
and immediate intervention.

Objectives: Better understanding of the habitats favorable to desert locust survivaland gregarization as this is critical to their management.
 Knowing the status of locusts and put mitigation measures in place.
 Deciding the control target so that mobilization of recourses can beeffected.
 Forecasting breeding and migration.
 Soliciting assistance.
 Proper evaluation of the campaign.

Surveillance in Eritrea

Ground Surveillance by scouts

Ground Surveillance by Vehicles

Continued

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Eritrea’s Control Strategy
Prevention Strategy• Eritrea deploys its limited resources to surveillance andMonitoring throughout the year.
• Eritrea has a long time experience. Scouts drawn from thelocal population and agricultural experts conduct surveys in
the local breeding areas throughout the year.
 The current strategy to reduce the frequency of plagues andmanage Desert locust infestations is early warning andground control.
 Thanks to this strategy Eritrea had always controlled
locusts before they start to fly.

Control Operations on invading Swarms
 If invading swarms come fromthe neighboring countries, theGovernment of Eritrea(Agricultural Experts, localadministration staff andmembers of the defenceforces) conduct control
operations during the nighttime as locusts are naturally
inactive then.

Desert Locust Situation During 2020

Different types of Sprayers

1. Manual knapsack sprayer

2. Motorized knapsack sprayer

3. Vehicle mounted sprayerPreparedness What should be in place to face a Desert Locust

threat with a good chance of success before anemergency occurs?

Well organized locust control stations and regularcampaign
 Effective strategies and tactics
 Qualified staff
 Sufficient and well maintained equipment
 Effective logistics management
 Sufficient material and financial resources.
Elements for success in Eritrea
 The most essential reason that contributed to the success was

the Government’s early preparedness.
 The Government’s preventive control and Community based
strategy .
 Ground control system based on the biological behavior of theDesert Locust.
 Having sound and efficient contingency plan.
 Establishment of temporary survey and control stations right at
the site of the outbreak during the Desert locust breeding season
adopted as culture of Desert locust management in the country.
 National high level task force and regional task force down tovillage administration.
 Commitment of the community, military personnel and thegovernment in general.

Pictorial Presentation of DesertLocust Control in Eritrea

Sprayer Maintenance TrainingControl actions against swarms of Locust in the Highlands

Migration of Desert Locust swarms from Neighboring countries

Preparation and Control operations against Locust Swarms

Locust Local breeding in Wekiro around Massawa

Locust Infestation before control operations

Control operations using Vehicle mounted Sprayers

Mortality after control operation

Mortality after control operation

Daily evaluation meeting of each control team in the eveningChallenges during Control Operations

Community Participation in control Operations

Deployment of Pesticides and Sprayers

Swarms MortalityCrops Saved from Damage

• Until December 2020 a total of more than 100,000 hectares ofland was infested with desert locusts with invasions fromNeighboring countries and Local Breeding.
• Thanks to coordinated efforts of the Ministry of Agriculture,
Regional Administration Offices and Members of the Defence
forces insignificant crop damage (0.4 percent or only 828
hectares) was registered.

Distribution of treated areas by Zobas
Achievements
RegionTreated areain hectares
Northern Red Sea
78,784Southern Red Sea
1,206
Maekel1911
Anseba712
Debub
18,510Gash Barka341
Total101,464.

Major challenges in EritreaThe main challenges in facing a Desert Locust threat islimitation of resources.
 Limited sprayers such as Manual, Motorized andVehicle mounted.
 Shortage of Personal protective equipments such as
Overalls, Gloves, Goggles, Masks and Boots.
 Spare parts for sprayers which are not available in thelocal market.
 Shortage of survey and control vehicles compared toour vast areas of Desert Locust breeding.
 Insufficient material and financial resources.

Thanks!