Plague of Locusts—Special Report June 1990 OTA-F-450 NTIS order #PB90-254103 Recommended Citation: U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, A Plague of Locwti+Special Report, OTA-F-450 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, July 1990). For sale by the Superintendent of Documents U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402-9325 (order form can be found in the back of this report) Foreword Widespread outbreaks of rasshoppers, then plagues of locusts, occurred insome parts of Africa from 1985 through 1 889. Donors, including the United States, mobilized sizable amounts of foreign aid for disaster assistance. Congress played a role throughout the insect upsurges, appropriating special funds for disaster assistance. Congress also had broader concerns regarding a number of environmental problems throughout Africa that seemed related to the locust and grasshopper situation. The Senate Appropriations Committee and its Subcommittee on Foreign Operations requested that OTA address a number of questions regardin how U.S. foreign aid dollars were spent during the recent plague: Was insect control time fy and effective? What were the impacts on donors long-term development efforts? What should the United States do when the problem recurs? This is OTA’S fifth report on U.S. foreign aid and African agriculture and our most detailed look at one specific problem. Here, we rovide background on the unusual nature of grasshopper and locust problems, examine t Re implications this has for the way problems are treated, then consider how U.S. contributions to the bilateral and multilateral control effort might be improved. We identifj two areas of technology-integrated pest management and insect, weather, and vegetation monitoring–that could have important impacts. We include specific ways in which Congress could ensure that such improvements are made. Like all OTA studies, this special report draws on many people’s expertise. We appreciate the efforts of our workshop participants, the people who responded to our survey, and those who reviewed the two draft reports. In particular, our thanks go to staff at the Umted Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). OTA, USAID, and FAO’S analyses and policy suggestions sometimes differ. But we at OTA are grateful for the assistance these other w-outx Provided and the thoroughness with which they;eviewed our early work. A/# k ~f JOHN H. GIBBONS Director . 111 OTA Project Staff-A PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS Roger C. Herdman, Assistant Director, OTA Health and Life Sciences Division Walter E. Parham, Pro am Manager Food and Renewab Fe Resources Phyllis N. Windle, Project Director Analytical Staff Kath Desmond, Contractor Da Te Bottrell, Contractor Dean Haynes, Contractor Paul Thompson, Contractor Administrative Staff Ellis Lewis, Oj@ce Administrator Nellie Hammond, Administrative Secretary Carolyn Swarm, PC Specialist Dedication OTA dedicates this report to the memory of S.M. Moobola, Director, International Red Locust Control Organisation for Central and Southern Africa, in Zambia, who died in mid-1989, and to Gladys Gilbert, USAID, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, who was killed in the 1989 plane crash of Congressman Mickey Leland’s delegation. Both took part in this work. We hope that it reflects the same ideals of public service and global cooperation that they embodied. iv CONTENTS Page EXECUTIVE SUMMARY **. **** **** **** **** **e* ""*" **"* 0"** **** **0* *0** *0e* 3 CHAPTER 1. THE BASICS ● **9**=* ● ****9*** .*..**.** ...*.*.** .*..*.*.* ● **.** 19 SettingtheStage . .. .= =” ”. ”” ”o”o=oooooooc*oo B ~~ Locusts andGrasshoppers . .....0”====” ““W MOOOOO Locust and GrasshopperUpsurges, Declines, and theRoleofClimate . 27 OrganizationsInvolvedinI-mcust and GrasshopperControl. 28 Pastand Current Control Methods forLocusts andGrasshoppers . 37 cmPmR2. mTIsmEPRoBLEM? .00..0. .*..*.** ● .00.0=. ● *****=* ● ***** 45 VaryingPerceptions oftheProblem . ...==...=-= 45 Locusts andGrasshoppers’ Impact onFoodProduction . 46 The Effectiveness ofControl Programs . .. =..”=.= 49 Health andtheEnvironment . .. .. .. .” ””’ ”O ”==””” 57 Institutional and PoliticalAspects ofControl . ....................==. 62 CHAPTER 3. STRATEGIES FOR THE FUTURE . ● ....*** ..**.*** ● O***** 69 WhatUSAIDDidWell . .. .. .. .=. @ HowTo DoBetterNextTime . .......”==””= 71 WhatControlToUse: The Role ofTechnology . 75 CHAPTER 4. POLICY OPTIONS FOR CONGRESS AND THE EXECUTIYE BRANCH . .....=.== ● 000”00 87 Where WeStandToday. .. .. .. ....=..”” 87 PolicyOptions . .. .. .. .. .. .. ... ... .. OOOOOO ““=” 89 Appendixes AppendixA Acronyms andGlossary . ...............=== ...... 107 AppendixB List ofContractorPapers, Contracted Analysis, and Workshop Participants .. .. .. .. .0 . .000.0...000000..000000 109 AppendixC OTASurveyForm . 11O AppendixD List ofSurvey Respondents . 115 AppendixE Reviewers ofOTA’s DraftReport . 117 AppendixF Recommendations FromThree Recent Reports onPestManagement in Developing Countries . ..................................00. ● “”~” ”.””” 119 AppendixG References . 124 v Executive Summary CONTENTS Page THE BASICS **** **** **** *e** ***9 ****e***********=*************************** 3 LocustsandGrasshoppers . .. ... ....==.=. 3 OrganizationsInvolvedinControlling Ikcusts andGrasshoppers . 3 ControllingGrasshoppersand Locusts ● *....*.* ● ********* 9**.**..*. ● ***.** 5 WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? ● *****9* ● *******9 ● ******** ● O******* ● *ee***** ● ***9** 9 TheEffectivenessofControl . 9 Impacts on Health andtheEnvironment . 10 Institutional and PoliticalAspects ofControl . ...=. 10 STRATEGIES FOR THE FUTURE ● ******O ● ****O**** 9*.****** ● -**O**** ● ******* 10 HowTo DoBetterNextTime . .. .. ... ... .....=. ..=. 11 What Control To Use: The Role of Technology . ..”.,...9 ● .*****... ● *..,** 12 POLICY OPTIONS FOR CONGRESS AND THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH . 12 RevisingUSAID’sStrategy .....00 .00...0. .*..***. ● ..**.** ..s..000 ● ****** 14 ImplementingIntegrated Pest Management . ..**.”* .*.***.. ● ***** 14 Using PesticidesJudiciously . 14 U.S. Coordinationand Support forAfrican, U.NVandRegional Organizations . 15 Funding Implications . 15 CONCLUSION ● ...***. ● ******.* .******.. ● *.,.**.. ● ..*****. ..*.*.*** ● ******** 15 Boxes A AnOperiLetterto OTA’sReaders: ATirneforCaution .......,. 4 B High PriorityPolicyOptionsfor Congress . .*....* ..***.** ● *.***.. ..**** 13 Figure 1 DistributionofTwo MajorSpecies ofLocusts and AggregatingGrasshoppers in Africaandthe MiddleEas~ . 5 Tables 1 Donor Assistance to Locust and Grasshopper Control Programs, 1986-89 . 6 2 U.S. Assistance to Locust/Grasshopper Programs, Fiscal Years 1986-89. 8 Executive Summary THE BASICS a given area and they occur e isodically. Grasshopper infestations often invo 1!ve a number Several ma”or species of locusts as well as sig- of different species and cause agricultural damage nificant po u 1 ations of various grasshoppers each year. The Sahelian region is particularly vul- threatenedA ricansimultaneously inthe 1980sfor nerable. the first time in 50 years. This infestation began in 1985 and 1986 after rains ended a severe, several- Locusts and some grassho pers become a year drought and new, serious problem when they breeJ rapidly, become thesepests~iatopro~~~~t~~~~~~;~~;~~~ heavily concentrated, and undergo a biological er species in the West African Sahe reached transformation to the gregarious hase. Each in- revels high enough to result in Iar e-scale control sect in a gregarious group (a bani of young hop- efforts. Also, a major plague of% esert Locusts pers or a swarm of adults) can eat up to its own began in countries around the Red Sea, with weight per day and swarms may contain millions of swarms moving west across the Sahelian countries. insects and migrate up to 1,000 km in a week. A By November, 1988, swarms of the Desert Locust plague occurs when many gregarious bands and extended from Mauritania and Senegal in the west swarms occur over a large area in different regions. to Iraq, Iran, and Kuwait in the east and some fragments of swarms reached the Caribbean. Damage to crops and the other ve etation is not evenly distributed but often locaf ized, like The recent pla uecaught African nations and damage from a tornado, even during a plague. The donors unprepare8 because the infrastructure to reasons for the start of an upsurge of locusts or fight these insects had deteriorated in the decades aggregating grasshoppers ire ~elatively well- since the last major problem. For donors such as known-bountiful rainfall and the availability of the U.S. Agency for International Development, new vegetation–although the inability to for;cast these insect problems caused shifts in funds, weather precludes accurate prediction of insect operations, and programs to cope with the ap- build-u . The reasons forplagues’declines are less parent emergency. The Desert Locust plague clear. {pacifically, the importance of control in ended in 1989 despite predictions that it would declines is hotly debated. continue for several ears. But longer term issues remain (see box A). rts differ widely in their Organizations Involved in Controlling assessment of the si %ni lcance of grasshopper and Locusts and Grasshoppers locust outbreaks ref ative to other pest problems and national level crop damage they cause; the The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization information base on which control decisions were (FAO has coordinated international locust con- made is deficient; no sound technological alterna- trol e )forts