TAIWAN TOO COOL: Although the pests damaging crops abroad could enter the nation, experts said that their chances of surviving the climate was extremely low
Taipei Times
Date: Feb 23, 2020
By: Chien Hui-ju / Staff reporter
Desert locusts that have ravaged crops across East Africa and parts of the Middle East are unlikely to
A desert locust feeds on a plantation on the outskirts of Dusamareb in Galmudug, Somalia, on Dec. 22 last year.
Photo: Reuters
Heavy rain and humid weather in East Africa last year created favorable conditions for the insects to reproduce, allowing them to feed on land along the Red Sea and invade Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Iran, Pakistan and India, the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine said.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization on Friday said that swarms in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia remain alarming, while in Southwest Asia, the situation is relatively calm with some operations under way to control a few residual summer-bred swarms in India.
Desert locusts rely on air currents for migration, former bureau director-general Feng Hai-tung (馮海東) said on Tuesday. [FULL STORY]
