Desert Locust upsurges aren’t a new phenomenon. Locusts are one of the oldest migratory pests in the world and have wreaked havoc on crops across the globe for centuries. When huge swarms infest many countries and spread across several regions or continents, it becomes a plague. A plague of Desert Locusts, the most destructive locust species of all, can easily affect 20 percent of the Earth's land, potentially damaging the livelihoods of one tenth of the world's population and seriously affecting food security.
Agriculture and Food
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Food and agriculture are being affected as a result of measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. As countries combat this pandemic, health is the top priority, but good health also depends on the availability and access to food.
L’Horta is an irrigation system declared by FAO as a . Located in the city of Valencia, it provides healthy food to a million and a half Valencians. Thanks to L’Horta, 6 000 family farms, including 10 fisheries, guarantee food reaches not only the Community of Valencia but also other communities and towns outside its borders. This irrigation system and use of water is an example of agriculture adapting to climatic conditions.
Leading up to the coronavirus pandemic, more than 820 million people went to bed hungry, including 110 million people who were living in acute food insecurity. Now as some developing countries face a double crisis - hunger and COVID-19 - the United Nations is working to support the most vulnerable. Governments, even as they prioritize public health goals, must do everything in their power to keep trade routes open and supply chains alive, urged the . Questions remain over the food supply chain due to quarantine regulations.
Pandemics create both demand and supply shocks in all economic sectors. Although the agricultural sector tends to be more resilient than other sectors, the food system in developing countries can still take a significant hit. And for countries that rely on food imports, a food systems crisis may hit earlier than the effects of the pandemic itself. deems essential that all interventions to protect food systems and rural producers, link projects and be holistic in design.
Population increases, higher food demand, and changing land use degrade around 33 percent of global soils. looks for innovative solutions to ensure we can protect them.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic began to affect food systems and agricultural livelihoods, 13 million people were already facing acute food insecurity.
As the COVID-19 pandemic turns into a global crisis, countries are taking measures to contain the pandemic. Supermarket shelves remain stocked for now.
Spain is the country in Europe that consumes the largest amounts of fish and seafood. It is no small feat for Europe’s biggest fishing port in Vigo, Spain to remain operational.
A pilot project was launched in the Jalal-Abad region of Kyrgyzstan in 2017 with the aim of boosting not only livelihoods and income but also diets and nutrition.
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East Africa is a region beset by climate- and conflict-related shocks. Millions of people are already acutely food insecure. Now they face another major hunger threat in the form of desert locusts. The locust upsurge affecting East Africa is a graphic and shocking reminder of this region's vulnerability. This is a scourge of biblical proportions. Yet as ancient as this scourge is, its scale today is unprecedented in modern times. On 20 January, FAO $76 million to help combat this pest crisis. But the resources to control the outbreak have been too slow in coming. Since its first appeal to help what was then three affected countries, the locust swarms have moved rapidly across vast distances and the full extent of their massive scale has become clear.
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