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Technical Report: Locust Outbreak 2019−2021

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Authors: Amy Newsom, Margaret Koli and Zita Sebesvari

1. Event

The years 2019 to 2021 saw the emergence and spread of a desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) infestation2 that reached across the Arabian Peninsula, the Horn of Africa and South Asia. At the height of the upsurge, a total of 23 countries were affected ((World Bank, 2020; FAO, 2020e), with an intensity that made this event the worst locust infestation that Ethiopia and Somalia had experienced in 25 years, and the worst in over 70 years for Kenya and Uganda. The ensuing large-scale loss of vegetation to locust swarms not only caused significant economic damages, it also directly threatened the livelihoods and nutrition of an estimated 42 million people already at risk from food insecurity in the predominantly agriculturally-dependent infestation hotspots (FAO, 2021c). Large-scale response measures were implemented to curb the 2019−2021 upsurge, with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) requesting US$312 million in funding (FAO, 2020b) and treating 1.3 million hectares by the end of 2020, with another 0.7 million hectares targeted for treatment in 2021 (FAO, 2020a).

The seeds of this outbreak were laid in 2018 when cyclones brought heavy rainfall to the remote area called ‘Empty Quarter’ in the Arabian Peninsula, creating prolonged favourable breeding conditions and allowing three generations of locusts to multiply undetected. In January 2019, the first swarms spread into neighbouring Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Iran, where further breeding occurred, creating new swarms that spread out towards the Indo-Pakistan border as well as Somalia and Ethiopia. By autumn and winter 2019/2020, desert locust infestations had spread further into African countries and along the Persian Gulf, reaching as far as northern India in late spring and summer of 2020. While the situation in Southwest Asia was controlled by September 2020, the infestation continued in the Horn of Africa and around the Red Sea, with extensive breeding causing the emergence of new swarms and bands. Cyclone Gati, in November 2020, further created favourable conditions in north-east Somalia and extended the breeding areas in the country. The desert locust infestation raged on in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula until early 2021, when the swarms began to decline due to control efforts and unfavourable weather conditions (FAO, undated c). Nevertheless, at the point of writing the infestation has not been entirely overcome and, for example, favourable weather events or a lapse of vigilance and control of current hatching in Ethiopia, Somalia, Saudi Arabia and Yemen could re-ignite the upsurge (FAO, 2021a).