Month of November

Locust? Like in the Bible?

This is really serious and is a very real threat to the food supply in Africa. It is a potential disaster we are looking at. See what Harward says here: “A plague of locusts has descended on East Africa, devouring crops, trees, and pasture as they move. The first generation, which emerged at the end of last year, numbered in the hundreds of billions.

Left unchecked, a factor of 20 per cording to the UN ture Organization that the second took flight in March in the trillions.

locusts multiply by generation, ac-

Food and Agricul(FAO), meaning generation that and April numbered

Now in July, a third generation is set to take off, paving the way for potentially calamitous food shortages in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Swarms can cover many square miles (sometimes areas as big as cities), move up to 100 miles a day, and eat their weight daily”. This is what FAO says: “FAO: Desert Locust situation update 5 October 2020

“Winter breeding by swarms started several months earlier than normal along the Red Sea coast, which could allow an extra generation of breeding this season and cause substantial increases in locusts”. Why now? They lay their eggs in wet soil and Africa had heavy rainfall also out of season. That meant trillions (or even more) locusts being hatched. And then they swarm to get to a food source. But how to control it? Very hard! A lot of birds (and other animals) eat locusts. If we spray against locust we kill of their natural predators. Some areas in Africa where the swarms are, are no-go areas due to conflicts.

Do we give up? We should never give up, but the underlying problem is climate change. We are creating excellent conditions for the swarms due to increased rainfall, higher temperatures in general and deserts are growing.

Look at some of the pics and be amazed.