Forget Alien Armyworms, a Worse Threat to African Corn Looms
- Red locust populations in Zambia are expanding, group says
- Zambia has released funds for aerial surveys, pesticides
A swarm of Red Locusts north of the town of Sakaraha, Madagascar, on April 27, 2013.
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Locusts breeding in central Zambia may pose a bigger threat to farmers in southern Africa than the fall armyworm that’s ravaged crops this year, according to an organization that combats the pests.
Red locusts have already reached densities of as much as 50 per square meter over 76,000 hectares (187,800 acres) in an area known as the Kafue Flats, Moses Okhoba, director of the International Red Locust Control Organization for Central and Southern Africa, said in an interview late Tuesday. If uncontrolled, they could form swarms of 40 million insects, destroying corn fields in their way.