FAO heads international campaign to avert locust and grasshopper outbreaks and save Africa's crops.

• Position: Food and Agriculture Organization

FAO heads international campaign to avert locust and grasshopper outbreaks and save Africa's crops

Locust and grasshopper infestationsthat, if unchecked, could trigger another food crisis in Africa were the target of international efforts in July, August and September. Co-ordinated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the campaign was aimed at preventing a chain of hatching and breeding of the insects that could lead to a three-year plague.

An emergency plan to head off a locustplague in sub-Saharan Africa was announced 7 July in Rome by the FAO. Edouard Saouma, FAO Director-General, explaining that for the first time in 50 years there were high concentrations of all four locust species commonly found in Africa, called for speedy action to prevent the infestations from developing into "generalized plagues" which could affect virtually all countries of the region.

"It is a tragic irony that as Africabegins to emerge from the recent devastating drought, its crops should now be faced with this grave threat", said Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar on 14 August, in an appeal for increased assistance from the international community.

"A locust plague of frighteningproportions will face Africa unless control teams with the necessary resources are put in place quickly to protect food crops", Mr. Saouma warned on 7 August, as he announced the establishment of the Emergency Centre for Locust Operations (ECLO) at FAO's Rome headquarters. "We cannot let locusts devour the food supply that Africans are working so hard this year to produce."

The Centre was to function as a"crisis prevention team", Mr. Saouma explained, to strengthen and support the efforts of FAO, African Governments, donors, and regional and international organizations. Entomologist Lukas Brader, Director of FAO's Plant Production and Protection Division, was named to head the Centre, which would oversee implementation of the emergency plan.

The plan, prepared at an FAO technicalmeeting of locust control experts and potential donors in Rome, called for delivery of $8 million in pesticides, equipment and aircraft services of affected countries and to regional organizations fighting the insects. An additional $15 million would be needed in 1987-88 if breeding conditions were favourable and swarms invaded territory outside their traditional outbreak areas, FAO estimated.

"This is a high-priority, high-stakescampaign," stated ECLO Director Brader on 7 August. "Locusts and...