A Refresher Course on locust monitoring and information management, including the Automated System for Data Collection (ASDC) and the Caucasus and Central Asian Locust Management System (CCALM), as well as pesticide risk reduction, was delivered on 5 and 26-30 October 2020, to the benefit of seven Kyrgyz Master-Trainers, by FAO staff and consultant. This will allow the Master-Trainers to deliver in turn training to other staff at the national level, in November 2020. This Training-of-Trainers is funded by the FAO Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP). For the first time in CCA Locust Programme, it was delivered remotely to cope with the current pandemics and proved to be functioning well. It is intended to be the first of a series of training to be delivered by FAO to the benefit of CCA countries in late 2020/early 2021.

These Practical Guidelines contain detailed information on the biology, ecology, and behavior of the Italian Locust, the Moroccan locust and the Asian Migratory Locust. These comprehensive and at the same time accessible material is intended primarily for locust and plant protection experts in CCA countries as well as for scientists, students and a wide range of readers. The Guidelines are authored by Mr Alexandre Latchininsky, FAO Agricultural Officer/Locust Management. They are available in Russian while the English version will be published in the near future. They are the second volume of a set of Practical Guidelines published in the framework of the FAO “Programme to improve national and regional locust management in Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA)”, the other being on locust control and pesticides risk reduction in CCA.

The “Project for Improvement of Locust Management (Phase 2)” was signed in late July 2020 between FAO and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to the benefit of six Central Asian countries, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. This five-year project, of USD 7.2 million, is expected to provide substantial support for improving locust management through regional cooperation and strengthening of technical capacities on a wide range of topics, including for the operational use of the locust Geographical Information System (GIS) entitled CCALM. While the immediate beneficiaries are the national services in charge of locust management, the ultimate beneficiaries of the assistance will be the rural populations living in the locust-affected areas, whose food security and livelihoods will be preserved through better prevention of locust outbreaks and upsurges. This project is a continuation and expansion of a Japan/JICA funded-project (Phase 1), successfully implemented by FAO in 2015-2019 to the benefit of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.  

A Webinar on the development of the current Locust situation globally, in CCA and the Russian Federation was organized by the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation on 23 June 2020, with the participation of the Russian Agricultural Center and to the attention of locust experts and partners. This follows the grant of USD 10 million made available by the Russian Federation, through FAO, for the current Desert Locust crisis in Eastern Africa. The webinar allowed addressing the Desert Locust emergency and FAO response, the locust situations in CCA and the related Programme to improve national and regional locust management, as well as locust management in the Russian Federation, among other. More information can be found at: http://www.fao.org/russian-federation/news/detail-events/en/c/1295527/

The 2020 locust campaign has started one month earlier than last year. Survey and control operations are ongoing in all countries despite the sanitary situations related to COVID-19. However, the campaign may be negatively affected in some countries, including by a reduction of available funding. An emergency project, funded by the FAO Technical Cooperation Programme, was approved to the benefit of Kyrgyzstan in this context. Activities of the overall locust Programme in CCA are ongoing, although a few had to be postponed or cancelled due to travel restrictions associated with COVID-19.

The Workshop on locust information analysis, forecasting and reporting in Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA) was held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on 11-12 November 2019, with the participation of the ten countries involved in the Programme. It was followed by the Technical Workshop on Locusts in CCA, also in Tashkent, on 13-15 November 2019. During the workshops, the delegates discussed the Programme activities in 2019, the work plan for 2020 and the developments of Automated System for Data Collection (ASDC) and Caucasus and Central Asia Locust Management System (CCALM), which are now available in most CCA countries. 

A regional session of the FAO Training on locust monitoring and information management, including the Automatic System of Data Collection (ASDC) and the Caucasus and Central Asia Locust Management System (CCALM) took place in Uzbekistan, in the picturesque village of Yusufhona on the banks of the Charvak reservoir (90 km northeast of Tashkent). The training was attended by four Turkmen and 12 Uzbek specialists who studied the bio-ecology of locusts, methods of density assessment and using the innovative ASDC software to collect and analyze field information on locusts. For these purposes, FAO purchased and distributed tablet computers to the training participants. The training was organized thanks to the project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The "Practical Guidelines on Pesticide Risk Reduction for Locust Control in Caucasus and Central Asia" are available! They were developed in the framework of the FAO multi-funded and interregional “Programme to improve national and regional locust management in Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA).” More specifically, the preparation of the Guidelines was supported by the "Project for improvement of locust management" in Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (GCP/INT/238/JPN) funded by Japan/Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). These Guidelines presents the risks of insecticide handling and use during locust control campaigns, as well as measures that can be taken to minimize those risks. The Guidelines relies on the international best practices as well as FAO experience in other geographical areas, taking into account the features of locust control in CCA. The Guidelines are authored by Mr Harold van der Valk, a renowned Environmental expert, and were peer-reviewed by Experts from FAO as well as from the beneficiary countries. They are available in five languages: Dari, English, Kyrgyz, Russian and Tajik.

A locust joint survey involving Armenian, Azeri, Georgian and Russian Locust Experts was carried out in Kakheti, Georgia, on 7-10 May 2019. Such joint survey allowed Locust Experts from the four concerned countries to collect field data and evaluate the locust situation together. Conducting such field activity is very instrumental for exchanging information and experience as well as sharing best practice. It also contributes to the development of regional cooperation between countries and to building up a regional network of technical experts. This joint survey was organized by FAO thanks to a project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

FAO has launched a Training-of-Trainers (ToT) on locust management to the benefit of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and the Russian Federation. The organization of two sub-regional sessions, on “Locust monitoring and information management, including the use of the Automated System for Data Collection (ASDC)” and on “Locust spraying and pesticide risk reduction, including ASDC”, respectively in late February and early March 2019 in Tbilisi, Georgia, allows training two Master-Trainers per country, based on the worldwide recognized best practices. The Master-Trainers will in turn deliver training sessions at the national level during the 2019 locust campaign, thus expanding the knowledge gained to other national experts. This ToT is organized by FAO thanks to a project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).