News: Pakistan and Somalia have declared locust emergencies.
Facts:
About Locust
- Locusts are a group of short-horned grasshoppers. They multiply in numbers as they migrate long distances in destructive swarms.
- Four species of locusts are found in India: Desert locust, Migratory locust, and Bombay Locust and Tree locust.
- Desert locust is regarded as the most destructive pest in India
Locust Hotspots
- The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has currently identified three hotspots of threatening locust activity: Horn of Africa, the Red Sea area, and southwest Asia.
- The Horn of Africa has been called the worst-affected area
Control measures taken by India:
Locust Control and Research scheme:
- It is implemented through the Locust Warning Organisation (LWO) which was established in 1939.
- LWO was amalgamated in 1946 with the Directorate of Plant Protection Quarantine and Storage (PPQS) of the Ministry of Agriculture.
- Objective: protection of standing crops and other green vegetation from Desert locust
