Locust swarms in Madagascar's capital

Locust swarms filled the skies over Madagascar's capital
this week. However, an expert says it does not mean the
locust plague in the nation has returned.
Annie Monard said the locust swarms over Antananarivo
were caused by "exceptional weather" for the city -- high
temperatures and winds blowing towards the capital.
Usually, she said, the locusts won't fly there because of the
city's altitude and lower temperatures.
Monard is in charge of the U.N. Food and Agriculture
Organization's locust campaign in Madagascar. She
sounded the alarm years ago, warning of a plague if control
measures were not conducted. They did not start on time
due to a funding shortfall and a locust plague was officially
declared. The nation's crops were at risk.
"A large-scale control campaign started in September 2013
and the campaign has the duration mainly of the rainy
season. A lot of operations were carried out during that time
and they are still ongoing. And more than one-point-two
million hectares were treated," she said.
The first phase of the control campaign stopped the plague
from growing worse. But more must be done to get the
locust numbers down to pre-plague levels, known as a
recession period. That's when there are only scattered
locust populations, which is normal for Madagascar.
"Now, it's necessary to continue because we stopped the
plague, but there are still locust populations in the
southwestern part of Madagascar and in the western part of
Madagascar. And it is necessary to continue controlling
these locust populations and the remaining swarms to
avoid the plague from starting again," said Monard.
The FAO expert said two more large-scale locust
campaigns are needed. However, funds are still being
collected before the next program begins. She added that to
be effective the second campaign should start very soon.
"The second campaign will start during the second half of
September in order to have the teams in place in the field.
The helicopter is planned to arrive in early October and the
treatments start again with the rainy season, which should
start in September/October as usual. [That's] because the
breeding of the locust populations starts with the rainy
season."
The FAO had warned that without locust control campaigns
in Madagascar the livelihoods of 13-million people would
be at risk.