When the desert locust upsurge of 2019–2022 occurred in Kenya, Esbon Agira, was deployed as a base manager in Marsabit County, north of the country. His work involved surveying desert locusts and provided information to the locust control operation teams. “Before the desert locust invasion, we were not prepared as a country. The last time Kenya faced the locust invasion of that magnitude was 70 years ago. There were thus no dedicated experts in desert locust management, and we lacked appropriate equipment and adequate pesticides to conduct control operations,” says Esbon.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has announced the official launch of SusaHamra, a new mobile application and online platform designed to combat the devastating Red Palm Weevil (RPW). This pioneering system marks a significant step forward in the fight against this invasive pest that threatens date palms, coconut palms, and ornamental palms worldwide.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is conducting a 5-day training workshop for technical officers in charge of desert locust control from East Africa and the Middle East, aimed to enhance preparedness of their countries to effectively respond to desert locust outbreaks and invasions.

Participants to the desert locust contingency planning workshop have been drawn from both breeding and invasion countries, and these include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Somalia, Syria, and Uganda. 

Continuous communication should be maintained during recession and locust crisis periods to increase awareness and mitigate impacts and protect livelihoods. The message was echoed at the just concluded Communication training workshop for Communication focal points from Algeria...

Bishkek – The 13th annual Technical Workshop on Locust Management is being held under the “FAO’s Programme to Improve National and Regional Locust Management in the Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA)”. The workshop is organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in close cooperation with the Ministry of the Agriculture of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, with the financial support of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It gathers delegates from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, as well as FAO experts and observers. It is the third time that Kyrgyzstan has hosted such an important workshop, since the start of the Programme in 2011.

Postgraduate students from ten different countries learned about the latest locust control strategies and FAO's early warning systems for transboundary plant pests at a recent seminar at CIHEAM-IAMB. The seminar was also a chance to discuss the Aral Sea Catastrophe and whether it could be reversed.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) welcomes the Federal Government of Somalia to the Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region (CRC) as its 17^th member.

Somalia's geographical location, historical significance in locust control, and contributions to the Locust Central Region Commission make it a crucial player in combating locusts in the Horn of Africa. Its membership in the CRC is a strategic step that will help to improve locust control efforts in the region.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations (FAO) conducted a regional training on locust survey and reporting techniques for locust officers from breeding and invasion countries, Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda.

The training of trainers targeted locust master trainers who will be able to transfer the skills and knowledge to their peers in their respective countries to conduct proper locust survey, monitoring and use proper reporting techniques.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is supporting the government of the Comoros to develop a national Action Plan to manage the banana Fusarium wilt (TR4) disease. The country confirmed the first case of banana Fusarium wilt (TR4) on Grande Comore Island early this year.