[imagesource:here]

Throughout the year, and on top of everything else that’s going on, farmers in East Africa have been battling locusts ravaging their lands.

Now, South Africa is dealing with its biggest locust outbreak in over a decade.

On December 3, 2020, Agriculture, Land Reform, and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza, via News24, announced that the country is currently experiencing outbreaks of locusts in the Free State, Northern Cape, and Western Cape.

“Control measures are currently being implemented to curb the spread of the locusts. The current strong winds are aiding the fight and spread of the locusts,” Didiza said in a statement.

Strong winds have contributed to the flight and spread of the locusts.

BBC summarises the possible consequences of the swarms:

It’s a different species of locust to the ones in East Africa but they can be just as destructive. And if they aren’t stopped now, food security in South Africa’s main agricultural areas will come under threat.

They also tracked a swarm and went out locust spraying with a small team of dedicated insecticide sprayers in the Eastern Cape.

The experience was documented in a short feature:

Here’s further local coverage from the Northern Cape:

And, the Karoo area of the Eastern Cape:

A team of specialists from the Department of Agriculture have been deployed to areas of the Free State, Northern Cape, and Western Cape to help battle the infestation.

Each insect eats its own body weight in food daily, and large swarming numbers are devastating to crops. Damages are mostly to grazing veld recovering after the drought.

The public has been encouraged to report large numbers of locusts seen in their areas.

You’ll find the contact information to do that here.

[sources:news24&bbc]