FAO trains 300 NYS recruits to help fight the locust invasion

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The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is currently training at least 300 National Youth Service men and women to help in the fight against locust invasion in affected counties.

FAO says that they will be deployed to the field to increase ground control of these migratory pests. So far, 17 counties have been invaded, with swarms of different lifecycle stages sighted.

A week ago,the Africa Solidarity Trust Fund donated $1 million to  FAO in efforts to combat Desert Locust in East Africa and the funding is a timely boost to FAO’s work with governments to combat the destructive pests.

"We have a window of opportunity before the next planting season. We must act now. Flexible funding, like that of the ASTF, helps us move fast," said Maria Helena Semedo, FAO's Deputy Director-General for Climate and Natural Resources.

"The contribution from the Africa Solidarity Trust Fund presents a timely opportunity calling upon all African countries and resource partners to support the outbreak through the ASTF platform," said the ASTF Steering Committee Chairperson, Maria De Fatima Jardim, who is also the Permanent Representative of Angola to FAO.

The Desert Locust is the most dangerous migratory pest in the world and according to FAO's latest update, the recent upsurge presents an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.

The FAO Locust Watch warns that South Sudan and Uganda are now at risk and there is also concern about new swarms forming in Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen as locust infestations continue to grow on both sides of the Red Sea.

FAO has estimated that $76 million is needed to scale up efforts to control the rapid spread of this pest and FAO Director-General QU Dongyu has called for urgent action to combat the upsurge. So far, more than $18 million has been donated to the efforts to fight the upsurge.