FAO's battle against the Moroccan Locust outbreak in Afghanistan: Safeguarding the wheat basket
Afghanistan's northern provinces are facing a severe infestation of the Moroccan Locust for the second consecutive year. This pest poses a significant threat to communities’ wheat production, pasture vegetation, and food security. Urgent measures are required to mitigate the economic and environmental losses caused by this voracious insect. Afghanistan has previously experienced large-scale locust outbreaks, notably in 1980 and 2001, resulting in significant losses to the national wheat crop, other agricultural produce, and pastureland.
The Moroccan Locust feeds on a wide range of plants from pastures, crops, and trees. If not addressed, the outbreak could wreak havoc on Afghanistan’s wheat production, but also severely impact livestock – by eating its pasture – and other crops. Since 80% of Afghanistan’s population lives from the agricultural sector, and more than one third of the population is categorized by the UN as suffering high or acute food insecurity, the prospect of a locust pest is very serious.
Northern Afghanistan, known for its susceptibility to locust infestations, experienced a combination of factors that facilitated the outbreak. Drought conditions from 2021 to 2023, coupled with overgrazing and patchy vegetation, the absence of monitoring and of spraying and just enough rainfall in March and April 2023, created an ideal environment for locusts to hatch (see the FAO press release from April 2023). Last year’s locust pest affected crops and pastures across seven provinces. Given the difficulties for the authorities to obtain spraying equipment and insecticide, most efforts to combat them were mechanical, i.e. manual. An Al Jazeera report by James Bays, who traveled with an FAO team to observe the pest, can be seen here.
To assess the danger of a new locust outbreak in 2024, FAO trained 65 technical staff in Balkh and Herat provinces on contemporary survey methodology. Subsequently, they conducted a locust egg-bed survey in 11 provinces and 45 districts from 20 July to 15 August 2023 to evaluate the risk and scale of outbreak of a locust pest in 2024. The survey covered an area of 30 196 hectares, revealing that 1 142 sites were infested by locust egg pods, covering a total area of 3 864 hectares, which accounted for 13 percent of the overall surveyed area. Over the winter months both FAO and the Afghan Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) prepared for the upcoming outbreak.
In March 2024 a new survey was conducted to determine priority areas of intervention. The infestation by locusts having spread, MAIL, which spearheads the response, now considers eleven provinces at risk: from Herat to Badakhshan, all northern provinces of Afghanistan. The hearth of the pest lies in the five provinces considered as Afghanistan’s breadbasket: Takhar, Kunduz, Baghlan, Samangan and Balkh.
The regional dimension of the locust outbreak cannot be ignored. FAO has been implementing a regional Locust Programme in Caucasus and Central Asia since 2011 to foster regional cooperation in addition of strengthening capacities, in particular with the support of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency in the five Central Asian countries and Afghanistan. Monitoring tools have been developed, including an Automated System for Data Collection and a Geographical Information System, with the scope to obtain real-time information including from the neighboring countries, once fully operationally used. It has been observed that locusts fly over the Amu Darya River between Afghanistan and Tajikistan to lay their eggs in May and June; the following year, the adult locusts may fly back. The lack of cooperation between the governments of Tajikistan and Afghanistan weakens the capacity on both sides of the border to properly address the locust threat. Indeed, the recent survey by FAO found that half of the locust egg-infested areas were along the Tajik Afghan border. Early May, a locust swarm was observed flying over the Amu Darya River from Tajikistan into the fertile wheat fields of Imam Saheb district in Kunduz.
The locust outbreak of 2024 seems to be a bit reduced by the abundant rainfall and unusually low temperatures of March and April; this is causing the eggs to hatch late and reducing the number of hatchlings. As they spread less during cold weather, it is easier to spray effectively. The authorities are also better prepared. This year they have acquired/received spraying material and insecticide and have identified early areas of intervention. The government of India donated 40 thousand liters of locust-killing insecticides to Afghanistan in January 2024. At the time of writing, the authorities have sprayed more than 17 000 hectares of land infested by locusts.
FAO has resumed cooperation with the abovementioned regional JICA project for capacity building. But to support larger-scale efforts, FAO secured funding from the Government of Norway for the project entitled "Mitigate the impact of Moroccan locust on the most vulnerable rural areas in the North and Northeast of Afghanistan". Between June 2023 and June 2024, FAO thus encouraged local communities to fight the outbreak by mechanical means – signifying that non-chemical methods are used to destroy locusts.
Besides its technical cooperation to reduce the scale and impact of the Moroccan locust pest, FAO supports farmers in rebuilding their agricultural livelihoods after the passage of locusts. Mr. Fida Muhammad, a small-scale farmer from Jamai Rajab in Kunduz province, shares his firsthand experience of the locust invasion. His village heavily relies on agriculture, particularly wheat, legumes, and oily crops, for sustenance and income. The locust onslaught in April 2023 devastated his fields (see the photo below). FAO then provided crucial assistance in the form of concentrated animal feed, fodder seeds, and cash, enabling Fida to provide for his family's basic needs.
FAO and its partners later mobilized Mr. Muhammad and his community members to help identify and mark locust egg hatching sites, and paid them for their efforts to mechanically destroy the hatching locusts this year. This allows community members to take action to safeguard their livelihoods from the ongoing locust menace. By prioritizing prevention and mitigation strategies, FAO seeks to protect both livelihoods and food security.
The coming month will reveal the extent of this year’s locust pest – FAO will continue to stand by farmers who suffer most from them, and help their communities find solutions to control this pest and build up their lives again.