Southern Africa’s locust outbreaks not a plague – yet

In February, a warning was issued confirming that a brown locust outbreak was in full force in Namibia and the Karoo region of South Africa. 

Locust outbreaks are not new in southern Africa. The brown locust is endemic to Namibia and the Karoo. But over the past 50 years, despite modern insecticides, locust outbreaks have intensified, and there are less years where activity is low. 

Agricultural Research Council research team manager Roger Price revealed that South Africa usually experiences more locust outbreaks than any of our neighbouring countries, but we are lucky in that outbreaks are contained to the Karoo area. 

Other regions are not so fortunate. 

Climate change 

Price explained that there is currently a serious African migratory locust outbreak on either side of the Zambezi River in Zambia, as well as in Namibia and Botswana. These locusts have also plagued southern Zimbabwe. Red locusts, which routinely wreak havoc in southern Tanzania, southern Malawi and Mozambique are also continuing. 

This is in a addition to desert locust swarms currently engulfing North and East Africa. 

A swarm of desert locusts filling the sky near farmlands in Mauritania. FAO’s Emergency Centre for Locust Operations have implemented control operations to limit the spread and harm of desert locusts. Picture: ©FAO/Giampiero Diana

If this is routine, why should we worry? 

Locusts lay their eggs after the rainy season starts, Price explained, meaning that the amount of rain received during the summer months of southern Africa will determine how much destruction can be anticipated for harvest the following year. 

But climate change is complicating the ability to predict the breeding cycles of locusts in southern Africa. 

Price referred to El Nino (drought) and La Nina (floods) events in the Pacific Ocean, which are becoming increasingly unpredictable. 

Although the impact of climate cycles has not yet been fully explored, Price said what is known is that outbreaks are linked to prolonged drought, and then widespread rainfall. 

Climate change will increase the frequency of abnormal weather, will likely cause more severe drought and floods, and will therefore likely spur on intensified locust outbreaks. 

“This locust damage may be the ‘last straw’ that pushes millions of people across the region into food-insecurity status,” Price warned. 

Crop damage 

Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations regional emergency agronomist, Sina Luchen, revealed that in one day, a locust can eat its own weight. A large swarm of locusts typically contains 40 million locusts, with a swarm spanning one square kilometre. 

Luchen said that in one day, a swarm of locusts can eat food meant to feed 35 000 people. 

Price said that in Zambia’s Sesheke and Mwandi districts alone, 80 square kilometres worth of maize and millet crops have been damaged.

Abubakar Abdiweli, national survey from Puntland Ministry of Environment and Agriculture, use the elocust3 system during locust swarms at the desert of Godobjiran, Nugal Region, Somalia. Picture: FAO

But this is not a plague, Luchen insisted – “We haven’t reached that stage yet.” 

This is in part due to the somewhat successful responses by governments in Africa to keep locusts contained to the extent that they do not cause serious economic damage. 

In order to mount a full-scale response to locust outbreaks in Africa, however, Luchen estimated that $4.3 million (about R70 million) is needed, “to effectively contain the issue”. 

Controlling brown locust outbreaks has been a national government responsibility since 1906, with records of outbreaks doing back to the 1790s. 

If there is a major outbreak, the department of agriculture chemically controls “tens of thousands of gregarious hopper bands and migrating swarm targets before they can escape and invade the maize producing areas in the Free State and North West”, Price said.

He explained that small-scale subsistence farmers suffer the most when swarms of locusts fly over and decimate their crops. 

“Locust outbreaks have a major impact on the homestead food security of millions of resource-poor subsistence and smallholder farmers in various parts of Africa. 

“The local damage caused by locusts can be severe, and sometimes require regional and international food aid to support vulnerable populations,” Price continued. 

“The brown locust is still considered as potentially one of the most important pest insect threats to agricultural production in South Africa.”

Disaster in our midst 

Price assured that national food security in South Africa is not currently at risk, because brown locust outbreaks usually take place in remote areas, not near commercially grown crops in the Free State and North West. 

This could change quickly, however, pushing Africa further towards a future where food is not secure.  

“Things may certainly change in future if outbreaks intensify due to climate change.” 

More frequent abnormal weather events likely mean more locust outbreaks and extended breeding seasons, and chemical pesticides alone “rarely” bring outbreaks under control. 

Price said unfavourable dry or cold conditions also deter locust outbreaks. 

The fate of Africa’s food security now lies squarely in the hands of governmental monitoring projects, international funding, and perhaps the most uncertain factor to impact human life on the planet – the inevitable disastrous effects of climate change. 

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