After having wreaked considerable damage across the farmlands in the East of Africa, from Ethiopia to Kenya to Somalia, swarms of desert locusts have moved towards their next target – South Asia. They’ve come a long way – born from the heavy rains in the Arabian Peninsula that allowed nearly three generations worth of unprecedented breeding, these locusts have since spread all over the world, flying nearly 150 kilometres a day.
It was back in January that the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and its parent organization the United Nations, raised the alarm, warning that the locust numbers were threatening food security for nations across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. These pests consume everything in their path, from grains to leaves, and even trees. Its been said that they can eat the same amount of food as 35,000 people in one day.
It is not the first time that the world has encountered this menace; in fact, locusts are considered the oldest migratory pest in the world, with historical accounts of the locust attacks dating back several hundred years. It was only last century, however, that systematic record keeping began, and a body was institutionalized to monitor locust movement.
At the face of it, one may ask, what harm can an insect the size of a grasshopper do? After all, locusts belong to the same family as grasshoppers; their key difference is their gregarious behaviour and their uniquely high levels of serotonin. Desert locusts travel in swarms, sometimes as large as several hundred square kilometres. Each square kilometre contains at least forty million insects. It has rightly earned itself the reputation of the most dangerous of the migratory pests in the world.
It is not that Pakistan was not well-aware of threat of a locust invasion. After all, Pakistan is member to one of the three regional desert locust commissions that are designed to assist countries in strengthening their national capacities to control the pest
For a country like Pakistan, in which agriculture contributes 19 per cent of Pakistan’s GDP and is the largest sector to employ the country’s population, the threat of a locust infestation could have dire consequences. Pakistan lies on the route of desert locust migration from both its eastern and western borders. Some warn a famine is inevitable, with an estimated $2.2 billion worth of loss in food crops. The locusts could destroy 75 per cent of major crops in a single year. Already, as a result of the ongoing locust invasion, nearly thirty-six thousand hectares of crops have been destroyed, from cotton, sugarcane and fodder chillies, as well as pulse crops like lentils and beans. Fifty-two districts in the country have been affected, all across, from Khuzdar in Balochistan to Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Sukkur in Sindh.
It appears Pakistan’s response to the locust infestation has largely been reactive. That is how it usually responds to crises. It was after the swarm of locusts crossed the borders of Pakistan that National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) sprang into action, spraying six million hectares of area and conducting survey operations across the country. The National Locust Control Center was established, bringing together the likes of National Food Security and Research Division, the Department of Plant Protection (DPP), and the NDMA, amongst others, to coordinate locust control operations across the country. Although the government declared a national emergency and charted a plan, costing Rs. 930 million to control the locusts spread, questions have been raised on the capacity and preparedness of the DPP and whether federal and provincial misalignment points to a lack of coordination.
It is not that Pakistan was not well-aware of threat of a locust invasion. After all, Pakistan is member to one of the three regional desert locust commissions that are designed to assist countries in strengthening their national capacities to control the pest. However, in Pakistan, control strategies are often reactive and not nearly proactive enough. Pakistan spends more resources in damage control and firefighting than it actually invests in strengthening mechanisms and systems to prevent the outbreak of crises in the first place. If there was ever a lesson in the decisions of the Trump administration to dismantle the government’s entire pandemic response chain of command and slash operational budgets of key institutes like the Center for Disease Control just some months short of the coronavirus pandemic, it is now.
A country needs to be to be forward-thinking and needs to be two steps ahead, particularly in areas related to the health and welfare of its population. Perhaps in a country that has much else on its plate, like defense against a hostile neighborhood, or the employment of a bulging youth population, the threat of locust invasions goes on the backburner. Admittingly, the last serious desert invasion was thirty years ago. However, climate change has heightened extreme weather events, increasing the likelihood of cyclones, which will increase locust plagues in the future. Investing in innovation and R&D now could ease the burden for the next invasion. Naturally, we have come a long way since the olden days, where there was no access to chemical pesticides, aerial control, or adept technologies to confront locust plagues. Now, newer technologies and innovative methods may be used to monitor habitat conditions and assist in locust detection. Already, the FAO has encouraged the use of drones to provide early warning systems to help prevent locust outbreaks, carry out pest surveillance and monitor crop growth. If this is a matter of funds, then surely the private sector may be mobilized to use drones for crop spray. Today, a proper control strategy entails looking into advanced knowledge and data mechanisms, investing in a reliable early warning system and enhancing capacity to carry out effective control operations.
When Pakistan talks about locusts, it needs to innovate and think out of the box, in order to pre-empt locust plagues. It’s a small pest, with a big appetite. This requires quicker thinking on part of policy-makers, swifter than the fleet of locusts eyeing our homeland’s pastures.
This author is an Erasmus scholar, currently associated with a policy think-tank in Islamabad