Locust warning in Brazil and Argentinia

[Laurentien2]

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Brazil and Argentina are monitoring a cloud of locusts that’s crossing South America, issuing warnings in parts of the countries.



The insects, which entered Argentina from Paraguay, are heading toward Uruguay. While they are not expected to affect Brazil’s crops, the nation’s agriculture ministry on Thursday declared a state of emergency in two southern states in order to allow officials to take preventive measures.






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The swarm of locusts is close to the province of Entre Rios, Argentina’s food safety department Senasa said in a report on June 23. So far, there has been no damage to crops in the area, according to department.



Massive swarms of locusts have ravaged fields in Africa and Pakistan, destroying crops and dealing a crippling blow to economies.



See also: Locust Swarms Ravaging East Africa Are the Size of Cities

The most recent invasions of locust in Argentina were in 2019 and 2017, according to Senasa. Locusts are migratory, able to travel as many as 150 kilometers (93 miles) in a day. They have been known to cross from one province to another, or even from one country to another, in a few hours.

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BUENOS AIRES/SAO PAULO - Argentina and Brazil are monitoring the movement of a 15-square-kilometer locust swarm in Argentina’s northeast, though authorities and specialists said so far it had not caused significant damage to crops in the South American countries.

Argentina, Brazil monitor massive locust swarm; crop damage seen limited
June 25, 2020 - Argentine food safety body SENASA said the swarm, which initially entered Argentina from Paraguay in late May, contained about 40 million insects. It is in the province of Corrientes, near borders with Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay.

Argentina and Brazil are among the world’s largest soy and corn exporters.

“We are following the movement of the plague,” Héctor Medina, a coordinator at SENASA, told Reuters on Thursday. Due to the arrival of a cold weather front from the south, the movement of the locusts would be limited in the coming days, he added.

The low temperatures “will prevent them from moving and reproducing. The lethargy makes them stay still,” Medina said. Winds could eventually push the cloud of locusts into a neighboring country, he added.

 

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NEW DELHI June 27, 2020 - Desert locusts on Saturday invaded Gurugram, a satellite city of India’s capital New Delhi, prompting authorities to ask people to keep their windows shut and bang utensils to ward off the fast-spreading swarms.

Locusts invade satellite city of India's capital
Delhi’s international airport, which borders Gurugram - home to some of the world’s top corporations, has asked pilots to take extra precautions during takeoff and landing due to the locusts, Reuters partner ANI reported.

Gurugram has never faced a locust attack before. Previous infestations have been mainly confined to some villages in the western state of Gujarat and Rajasthan in the north, which share a border with Pakistan’s desert areas.

India, which is battling its worst desert locust outbreak in decades, is using specialist vehicles and fire engines to spray insecticides in at least seven populous states in the north, centre and west of the country.

It has also bought a helicopter-mounted spray system to control the swarms in some key farm belts, as summer crop-sowing gathered pace with the arrival of the monsoon rains this month.

The locust infestation has not caused significant damage so far due to the lean season - the gap between the previous harvest and the next planting season - but farmers are worried about their summer crops.


Hit by coronavirus and wild weather, Italy now battles locusts

The locusts have damaged nearly 15,000ha of grazing land in the central province of Nuoro, in Sardinia, Italy.PHOTO: AFP

June 26, 2020 - Swarms of locusts have stripped thousands of hectares of pasture and cropland in Sardinia, devastating farmers already struggling from the coronavirus pandemic, farming groups said.

Their numbers fuelled by rising temperatures, the pests have damaged nearly 15,000ha of grazing land in the central province of Nuoro, said Mr Michele Arbau, of the Sardinia branch of Italian agricultural association Coldiretti.

"Farmers have lost the summer pasture and partly the fodder for autumn and winter… and the very few people who grew barley had to give that up too," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

During the summer months, locusts are a common phenomenon on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia - known for its idyllic beaches and exclusive resorts - but this year's outbreak has been much larger than normal.

Last year, the pests destroyed about 2,500ha in what was then described as the worst outbreak since the end of World War II.