FAO calls for $40m funding to fight latest locust outbreaks

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has warned of a repeat of last year’s costly...

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has warned of a repeat of last year’s costly locust outbreaks in Africa and the Middle East that devastated local cereal production, and asked international donors for help.

FAO is asking donors for $40 million to combat the latest infestations around the Horn of Africa and the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, boosting surveillance and control measures where new swarms are threatening to grow.

“Favourable weather conditions and widespread seasonal rains have caused extensive breeding in eastern Ethiopia and Somalia. This was worsened by Cyclone Gati which brought flooding to northern Somalia last month allowing locust infestations to increase further in the coming months,” FAO said.

Kenya, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen were also named as potentially susceptible to new invasions.

Earlier this year, one of the worst locust outbreaks in decades prompted the FAO to step up its work, with control actions to date preventing the destruction of an estimated 2.7 million mt of cereals on 1.7 million ha.

Worth $800 million, those crops are enough to feed 18 million people for a year.

What to read next
Prices for recycled fiber-based containerboard in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) had some increases with few decreases in February and as a result Fastmarkets’ PIX indices for locally-produced testliner and fluting rose slightly on Tuesday March 4. While most of the prices reported to Fastmarkets were unchanged, some increases in Saudi Arabia and the United […]
China has announced additional tariffs of up to 15% on imports of US goods from March 10, with the new measures covering largely agricultural products, alongside restricted exports to 15 US companies, according to a notice posted by the country’s Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday, March 4. Imports of agricultural goods […]
The European Union’s weekly wheat exports amounted to 243,324 tonnes in the week to Sunday, February 16, according to initial data from the European Commission. Total wheat exports from the EU for the 2024/25 marketing year stood at 13.34 million tonnes, down by 36% compared with the same period in the previous marketing year, when […]
US corn sales for the 2024-25 season were reported at 1.65 million tonnes in the week to February 6, up by 12% from the previous week and by 20% from the prior four-week average, landing within the USDA’s expected range of 800,000-1.7 million tonnes, USDA data showed on Thursday, February 13. Much of the increase […]
Brazilian corn exports amounted to 3.59 million tonnes in January, down by 26.3% from the same month last year. Meanwhile, soybean shipments fell by 62.4% to 1.07 million tonnes, according to customs weekly data on Monday, February 10. In January last year, Brazil exported 4.87 million tonnes of corn and 2.85 million tonnes of soybeans. […]
Prices for recycled fiber-based containerboard (RCCM) in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region experienced minor changes in January, with locally produced testliner and fluting stable or slightly lower compared with December, against the expectations of Fastmarkets contacts. Fastmarkets’ PIX Testliner GCC index edged down by $2.88 per tonne, or 0.60%, to close at $473.92 per […]