Desert locust upsurges aren’t a new phenomenon. Locusts are one of the oldest migratory pests in the world and have wreaked havoc on crops across the globe for centuries.
Juan Carlos Rivera lives in the Dry Corridor of El Salvador, an area where high temperatures, low rainfall and regular droughts pose constant regular problems to his way of life.
The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, said today that significant gains had been made in the fight against the desert locust upsurge in East Africa and Yemen.
While Somalia and its partners, including the United Nations, focus on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, other parts of the international organization remain concentrated on supporting the Somali authorities in a range of areas – including the current desert locust infestation.
An implementation of an integrated and innovative intervention has sustained a source of food and income for the most vulnerable resident in villages along the river in Deir Ez-Zor Governorate in the Syrian Arab Republic.
The Government of Russia has announced a contribution of $3 million (KSh 300 million) to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to support Kenya’s response to the worst desert locust invasion to affect that East African country in over 70 years.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is already directly affecting food systems through impacts on food supply and demand, and indirectly through the decreases in purchasing power, the capacity to produce and distribute food, and the intensification of care tasks all of which will more strongly affect poor and vulnerable populations.
FAO Director-General QU Dongyu has thanked the Russian Federation for boosting the fight against the desert locust outbreak in East Africa by making a $10 million contribution to support FAO operations in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda.
The livelihoods of millions of family farmers in Pakistan have been affected by a series of natural hazards in the last 14 months and now stand to be devastated by the spread of COVID-19, but action is underway to help them, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said today.