Desert Locust population dynamics

Desert Locust infestations are normally present in southeast Iran during the spring. Local breeding coincides with seasonal rains that often occur from about February or March until April or May. In warmer years, rains that occur during the winter can lead to late winter and early spring breeding. By June, vegetation is usual dry again and any adults that were produced during the spring move east towards the Indo-Pakistan summer breeding areas. Most of the spring breeding occurs along a 450 km stretch of coastal plains on the Arabian Sea from Jask (Hormozgan) and the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman in the west to Chabahar and Gwatar (Sistan-Baluchistan) near the Pakistan border in the east. The most important area along the coast is the Vashnum Plains near Chabahar. If rains fall and temperatures are warm, breeding may also occur in the interior, namely the Jaz Murian Basin from Kahnuj to Iranshar, and in the Zaboli, Suran and Saravan valleys that lead to Panjgur, Pakistan. Desert Locust adults rarely cross the mountains to the north of these areas.

National Locust Programme

The Plant Protection Organization (PPO) in the Ministry of Jihad-e-Agriculture has the national responsibility of monitoring and controlling Desert Locust in the country. The Locust Section at PPO is located in Tehran. Ground surveys are normally carried out during the spring by trained staff from the provincial agricultural offices in Hormozgan (Bandar Abbas, Jask), Kerman (Kahnuj) and Sistan-Baluchistan (Chabahar, Iranshar, Saravan). Since 1995, a joint Iran/Pakistan team undertakes a ground survey every April for two weeks in Baluchistan, Pakistan and two weeks in southwest Iran.