"Ancient pest crunches through Africa's food"

A plague of Biblical proportions threatens to decimate the fragile agricultural communities of west Africa. The culprit is a six-legged munching machine called Schistocerca gregaria, otherwise known as the desert locust.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome has warned repeatedly that not enough is being done to contain the immense swarms of locusts that are eating their way through vast swathes of food crops stretching from Mauritania in the west to as far as Chad in the east.

Swarms up to 40km long and containing billions of insects have been sighted in southern Mauritania, northern Senegal, Mali and Niger. The FAO said there is a high risk of them spreading to Bukina Faso and the troubled Darfur region of western Sudan.

The FAO said that the situation is getting worse by the day as a series of prolonged rains have helped the locusts to breed quickly and go through four generations in quick succession.

Full Article : iol.co.za