Since the last rainy season, an upsurge of the Migratory Locust is underway in Madagascar. The food security and livelihood of nearly half a million Malagasy households is threatened. From May 2010 onwards, locust swarms have progressively moved northwards from the outbreak...[more]

More than 25 million hectares of cultivated land in the Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA) are potentially threatened by locusts and grasshoppers every year, and infestations have increased by 65 percent since 2006. The three main locust pests (Italian, Moroccan and Asian Migratory...[more]

Where pesticides are used and stored there is often spillage and environmental contamination. This is particularly true in countries where large volumes of pesticides are used, for example in locust control operations. The spilled pesticide can remain toxic and noxious for...[more]

The Red Locust, Nomadacris septemfasciata (Serville, 1838), is a very hazardous insect pest to agriculture in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa and breeds in specific grassland areas located in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. In 2008 aerial surveys undertaken by the...[more]

Indiscriminate use of pesticides is of high concern to many governments in Asia as it poses risks to crop production, farmers, the environment, food safety and government plans to intensify agricultural production and develop export potential. The FAO Regional Vegetable...[more]

FAO is partnering with Oregon State University (OSU) to deploy new technology in West Africa for monitoring pesticides in surface and ground waters. The “passive sampling device” (PSD) uses an artificial membrane suspended within a stainless steel frame and submerged in surface...[more]

The situation is under control and closely followed by FAO and CLCPRO The National Center for Locust Control (CNLA) of Mauritania is continuing land operations of survey and control in the central and western central regions of the country on larval aggregates and fledglings....[more]

More than 70 million people in 15 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa depend on banana for their livelihood and food supply. Their food security is being threatened by the arrival and spread of two devastating banana diseases - Banana Bunchy Top Disease and Banana Xanthomonas Wilt....[more]

In cooperation with the Government of Ethiopia, FAO introduced a parastitic wasp to control a fast-spreading aphid pest infestation threatening to destroy cypress tree plantations in parts of North Western and South Western Ethiopia. The death of cypress trees was first...[more]

An international Red Locust emergency campaign in Eastern and Southern Africa has succeeded in containing a massive locust outbreak in Tanzania, FAO said today. It is the first time that biopesticides are being used on a large scale in Africa against locusts.

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