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Swarms of Desert Locust, over the last couple of months, have moved swiftly into west Asia attacking vegetation in parts of Iran and Pakistan, and are now threatening crops in India, FAO said in a press release on Saturday.
These swarms are the worst experienced in more than a generation, the press release said, adding that FAO experts estimate the number of locusts could grow twenty-fold in the upcoming rainy season in South Asia unless extra measures to counter the swarms are put in place.
“FAO is tracking the movements across Africa, Asia and the Middle East.”
Fall army worm, a maize-destroying pest that migrated to Asia from Africa in 2018, has also spread across the continent and has arrived in Australia, the UN organization said in its press release.
“We cannot and must not under-estimate the damage to lives and livelihoods that the convergence of these crises will have on food security and hunger in this part of the world, already home to most of its undernourished people,” said Jong-Jin Kim, FAO Deputy Regional Representative and Head of the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.
“FAO continues to support our member countries in response to these and other threats in these very challenging times,” the official emphasized.
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