Locusts: A Trigger for Global Change?

In the words of Oscar Wilde, “Starvation, not sin, is the parent of modern crime”.

Early this year, countries in South Asia found themselves in dire straits. On one hand, economies and health systems were being ravaged by COVID- 19 and on the other, unprepared farmers were battling an unprecedented locust attack. While COVID- 19 has dominated the news cycle, the problem of locusts has not received nearly the same amount of attention. Even a small swarm of locusts can eat up acres and acres of crops, leaving in its wake food scarcity and farm crisis. There is thus an urgent need to talk about how humans and natural systems are affected by locusts and what can be done to minimize the damage they cause.

What are locusts?

Locust is part of the family Acrididae, under the order of Orthoptera, commonly known as short-horned grasshoppers. They are matchless fliers and jumpers and have a tough outer shell which provides a means to catch their prey and acts as a defence mechanism to evade predators. They are “biphasic” animals i.e. they have two natures- solitary and gregarious. In their solitary form, locusts are dark brown in colour, very docile, and do not pose any threat to crops. They transform into electric yellow beings after they link with each other through a mere touch. In this form, locusts exist in giant swarms that could range up to the size of Luxembourg. In Autumn 2019, approximately 20 billion locusts headed towards Kenya covering an area 60 km long and 40 km wide. Soon, the swarms began migrating East, in the direction of the Sun, and wind currents (Dunne, 2020).

Locusts have low fliers that stabilize their ground speed and utilize the wind velocity to fly. The swarm operates on the principle of mutual stimulation to create a stabilized motion depending on the direction of their movement, to make it trouble-free for it to adapt to changes due to wind velocity or external sources (Kennedy, 1951). In a recent incident, an Ethiopian Airlines flight was derailed after it encountered a swarm of locusts. The swarm reduced visibility from the the cockpit and slammed into the turbine engines, forcing the plane to land in Ethiopia’s capital for a full diagnostic check-up and for cleaning. (Dunne, 2020) This only proves the famous proverb that “there is strength in numbers”. And, this remains true for the animal kingdom as well.

What explains the recent upsurge in massive locust attacks?

In short, climate change.

In 2018, Cyclone Mekunu hit Oman. All of a sudden, and the arid desert was facing excessive rainfall, flooding and as a result, a rise in vegetation. This became a breeding ground for locusts. Then, Cyclone Cuban’s elapse resulted in the formation of a locust swarm that multiplied much more briskly and migrated towards Africa in search of food. It was from Kenya that the locusts migrated to Sudan and Ethiopia for summer breeding and from Somalia to India via wind currents (Stone, 2020). There was a migration from their spring breeding ground from Pakistan to western India as well.

All these factors can be traced back to the Indian Ocean Dipole: a weather phenomenon that is characterised by changing sea surface temperatures in the Indian ocean. If the waters of the Indian Ocean become too warm, weakened western winds are generated which aid in the formation of cyclones, especially in the African- Arabian peninsula. In the year 2019, abnormally high ocean surface temperatures were recorded. This caused heavy rains in parts of the Middle East and North Africa where locust eggs had been lying dormant for decades. The rainwater nourished the eggs, which hatched in large numbers.

How do locusts damage agriculture?

Locusts normally eat their weight in vegetation, but when there is a rise in temperature, digestion happens at a much faster rate. This essentially means that due to rising temperatures, locusts started to get hungry faster which in turn makes them want to eat multiple times (Dunne 2018). If considered individually, their potential for harm is minuscule. But in a large swarm, they are destructive and have caused food insecurity, unemployment, and downturn in GDP growth. This is especially dangerous as several nations in Africa and South Asia- the prime victims of locust attacks- already have to deal with acute poverty and chronic hunger. According to a Report, Increase in crop losses to insect pests in a warming climate, for every additional degree of temperate rise, a global food loss of 10-15% would be experienced. Rise in temperatures also impacts the quality of the crop as the plant becomes nutrient deficient.

In order to protect crops from locusts, many insecticides and pesticides like Organophosphate and carbamate insecticides, Synthetic pyrethroid as well as Malathion are used in varying concentration. They are found to be effective in killing insects while preserving the plants’ life. However, these chemicals, while preserving the plant’s life, also damages its nutrient value, cause soil and water pollution and are extremely harmful to the individual who consumes these plants. Some of the insecticides are so toxic that they have to be sprayed on barren land unoccupied by any human settlement in its vicinity. In addition to the effects of the pesticide on the land, there is a threat to food security because they poison pollinators like bees. It is ironic that both the problem and the solution just might endanger the victim- the vegetation. There is no win between these two options, both are dangerous – one made by nature and the other made by man (Munang, 2020). As governments around the world are scrambling to save crops by spraying the “medicine that kills”, it must be made clear that it is just a temporary fix and not a solution.

The path ahead

In the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic, imports and exports are down, food security is in jeopardy and severe earthquakes and cyclones (as well as the locust attacks) have caused massive damage to economies. Thankfully, it has been announced that countries in Africa like Somalia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Yemen will be receiving financial relief through the World Bank’s Emergency Locust Response Program (ELRP), to battle locust infestation and the health crisis caused by the pandemic.

Along with this, Germany has promised €17 million. These funds will go to the people impacted as well as to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations for surveillance, developing early warning systems, and other such installations that would forecast or act as a prevention tool against future attacks. The Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust is also working with the FAO but a major drawback is that this commission doesn’t have participation from many African and Middle- Eastern countries affected by the outbreak. This is important since the issue at hand requires wider international cooperation given the fact that locust swarms are migratory creatures.

Closer home, organizations like the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and the government of India have been trying to fight the scourge of locusts since the 1940s by enacting numerous legislations. In the year 1945, the Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage was established with the aim of encouraging crop production and providing storage and other facilities to mitigate loses. Furthermore, the Destructive Insects and Pests Act gave authority to the Indian Government as well as state governments to make rules regarding pests, fungi, and other creatures.

In addition to this, the East Punjab Agricultural Pests, Diseases, and Noxious Weeds Act was promulgated in 1949 which called for the beating of drums by males above 14 years of age in order to shoo- away locusts whenever a swarm arrived to attack crops. (Kaartikay & Shubhankar, 2020) However, this act does not guarantee any security, nor does it supply any safety equipment to these men who enter the swarm comprising billions of locusts. The act does allow the state government to recognize this creature as a pest and take substantial actions to eliminate it.

The real long term solution to reducing locust swarms is to actively fight climate change by cutting down on emission and striving to achieve UN’s Sustainable Development goals. Besides being innovative, looking at different perspectives of the problem might just help. The need of the hour is to act responsibly and move forward with a sense of compassion towards other ecosystems. Nothing but sustainable growth and environmental conservation can ensure our survival.

Bibliography

Dunne, D. (2018, August 8). Rise in insect pests under climate change to hit crop yields, study says. Retrieved from Carbon Brief: https://www.carbonbrief.org/rise-in-insect-pests-under-climate-change-to-hit-crop-yields-study-says

Dunne, D. (2020, January 22). Q&A: Are the 2019-20 locust swarms linked to climate change? Retrieved from Carbon Brief: https://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-are-the-2019-20-locust-swarms-linked-to-climate-change

Kaartikay, A., & Shubhankar, T. (2020, June 28). Examining Locust Invasion In India From A Legal Perspective. Retrieved from Livelaw: https://www.livelaw.in/columns/examining-locust-invasion-in-india-from-a-legal-perspective-159024

Kennedy, J. S. (1951, May 31). “The Migration of the Desert Locust (Schistocerca Gregaria Forsk.). I. The Behaviour of Swarms. II. A Theory of Long-Range Migrations.”Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences. Retrieved from JSTOR, : http://www.jstor.org/stable/92412.

Morales, X. Z. (2020, May 21). World Bank Announces $500 Million to Fight Locusts, Preserve Food Security, and Protect Livelihoods. Retrieved from The World Bank: worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/05/21/world-bank-announces-500-million-to-fight-locusts-preserve-food-security-and-protect-livelihoods

Munang, R. (2020, February 6). Locust swarms and climate change. Retrieved from Unenvironment.org: https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/locust-swarms-and-climate-change

Stone, M. (2020, February 14). A plague of locusts has descended on East Africa. Climate change may be to blame. Human activity has made an ocean circulation pattern misbehave—triggering a weird confluence of events that has caused the infestations.Retrieved from National Geographic: nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/02/locust-plague-climate-science-east-africa/