Emergency Desert Locust Response: How a Humanitarian Calamity was Mitigated

21 October 2021, Des Moines, Iowa - In a high-level webinar hosted by the FAO North America, expert panelists discussed how the impacts of the desert locust infestation of 2018-2021 were successfully mitigated. The desert locust is the most destructive migratory pest in the world, rapidly consuming most vegetation in its path, including crops and pastureland critical to maintaining food security and livelihoods.  

The session, moderated by Jocelyn Brown Hall, FAO North America Director, gave insight into how FAO worked with its government and private sector and partners alike to halt major devastation to crops, livelihoods, and food security.  

This most recent upsurge in desert locusts over the past 20 months posed monumental threats to large parts of the world. In Kenya, conditions were the worst that the country had seen in 70 years and the worst that Ethiopia, Somalia, and India had experienced in 25 years. Thankfully, international response efforts led by FAO and more than 50 partners have drastically reduced the worst of the potentially devastating impacts posed by the massive desert locust infestations.  

“The news is grim in many ways, and yet there are solutions and this particular event today is an event to celebrate the successes of a multi-sector stakeholder solution-based success,” said Brown Hall. 

The direness of the situation and mitigation efforts were detailed through a technical presentation from Keith Cressman, Senior Locust Forecasting Officer at FAO, who contextualized that a single locust swarm could be the size of New York City and this swarm could eat as much as the populations of California and New York in one day. Kressman also described the underlying weather conditions which primed areas for locust swarms, starting in 2019.  

The FAO response began with the Director-General declaring a state of emergency, allowing for fast-tracked funding and procedures. “That saved more than 4 million metric tons of crops something around USD 1.7 billion of economic losses have been avoided,” said Kressman, “740 million people had been protected and more than 880 million liters of milk have been saved (which is) crucial for child nutrition.” Kressman also went on to explain FAO’s early detection warning system, which utilized technology from partner organizations.  

Of the technology used within the warning system was the eLocust3m, which was a satellite-connected mobile app that allowed locust data to be collected and shared efficiently using Artificial Intelligence. This app was developed and utilized by Penn State University and PlantVillage, led by David Hughes, the Chair of Food Security at Penn State University and founder of PlantVillage. Hughes stressed the importance of employing local young people in the locust management efforts. “Having people on the continent where the farmers are you using these connected tools -phones running Ai that is connected to a suite of satellite systems - enables a better approach to pest management, one that we think is sustainable and can be scaled across the continent,” said Hughes.  

Greg Vulinovic of Garmin InReach described the benefit of the eLocust3g technology, which allows real-time transmittal of locust data with “100 percent global coverage” according to Vulinovic. “At Garmin, we’re really proud of our contribution to this great project and helping to mitigate this crisis,” he added.  

Joe Huesing, who managed the joint project between USDA FAS/USAID desert locust efficacy and cost-benefit assessment described the need for establishing contingency plans in local governments for mitigating future crises. “It seemed that procedures and processes weren't in place to rapidly respond,” said Huesing. He added that continually analyzing data from the ongoing crisis is crucial, “you want to ask the question was that (the large population fluctuations and then the demise of locusts) due to control operations wasn't due to the natural biology of the past or to both?” 

As summarized by Cressman, “I think that the challenge here is to harness the technologies, the innovations that we've been talking about and to collaborate and work together effectively.”  

Useful Resources

Watch the recording: https://bit.ly/3k57fqu

Speakers bios: https://bit.ly/Oct21Bios 

FAO Locust Update: https://www.fao.org/ag/locusts/en/info/info/index.html