What over a decade of field research reveals about desert locusts - and how this can improve control efforts. Insights into behaviour could help make pest control more targeted and effective.

As desert locusts  recently resurge in North Africa once again in March-May 2025, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reflects on 80 years of coordinated global locust management.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) successfully concluded a series of practical trainings designed to strengthen the capacity of farmers, field agronomists, and technical officers in the prevention, diagnosis, and management of wheat rust diseases in Tajikistan.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with various partners, has trained more than 30 wheat breeders and technical officers in advanced breeding techniques to manage wheat rust diseases that have affected countries such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

From crop failures to animal epidemics to zoonotic diseases, new pests and diseases are emerging more often-and spreading more widely than ever. Find out how a new community of practice can help connect the dots to turn knowledge into early action.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is contributing to the ongoing locust management efforts against the South American locust, one of the most significant pest species in the Americas. In 2024, early detections of the pest across several Argentine provinces, as well as in Bolivia and Paraguay, prompted a national phytosanitary alert and signaled the urgent need for coordinated action.

A comprehensive resource on the three locust species in the Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA) has been published to support improved knowledge and management in the region. The guidelines are available in English, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Russian, Tajik, and Turkmen, ensuring that stakeholders can access the information in their local languages.

Countries in North and West Africa are coordinating their response to the anticipated desert locust threat in the summer of 2025. According to predictions by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), ecological conditions in certain breeding areas may be conducive to swarm formation.

Cooperation at all levels, together with effective funding, are critical in the fight against transboundary pests and diseases (TPPDs), which each year destroy up to 40 percent of the world’s crops, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Director-General QU Dongyu noted today as he marked the International Day of Plant Health.

For generations, wheat has been the backbone of life in Central Asia and the Caucasus. But wheat rusts—a collection of airborne fungal diseases with poetic names like yellow, leaf and stem—has become an intensifying threat across the region. Find out how FAO is working with partners to tackle the threat.