After they ravaged parts of East Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo has became the latest country on the continent hit by an invasion of crop-destroying locusts, experts said on Thursday.

The insects made their first appearance in northeastern DR Congo's Ituri province -- its first such swarm since 1944 -- on the frontier with South Sudan and Uganda, which have already been hit by locusts.

"A small group of mature Desert Locust arrived on the western shore of Lake Albert near Bunia on 21 February after crossing northern Uganda on strong northeasterly winds," the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization said on its Locust Watch web page.

"The country last received Desert Locust in 1944."

Billions of desert locusts, some in swarms the size of Moscow city, have already chewed their way through Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti, Eritrea, Tanzania, Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda.

Their breeding has been spurred by one of the wettest rainy seasons in the region in four decades.

Locusts were first seen in the DRC on February 19 in the territory of Aru, in Ituri, Jean-Francois Kamate, agricultural inspector for the area, told AFP.

"There is a risk that they will multiply. They will travel in tandem and destroy everything that is green, even the bark and the lawns," Kamate said.

Ituri and neighbouring North and South Kivu provinces are home to tens of thousands of people fleeing militia violence and are already prone to food insecurity.

Related Links
Farming Today - Suppliers and Technology

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The Space Media Network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceMediaNetwork Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceMediaNetwork Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Arctic 'doomsday vault' stocks up on 60,000 more food seeds
Longyearbyen (AFP) Feb 25, 2020
A "doomsday vault" nestled deep in the Arctic received 60,000 new seed samples on Tuesday, including Prince Charles' cowslips and Cherokee sacred corn, increasing stocks of the world's agricultural bounty in case of global catastrophe. Mounting concern over climate change and species loss is driving groups worldwide to add their seeds to the collection inside a mountain near Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen Island in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, about 1,300 kilometres (about 800 miles) from the North P ... read more