By Cyril Piou
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned that the locust invasion in the Horn of Africa may soon spread to other countries. The locusts feeding on crops could leave millions of people without food. Cyril Piou shares his insights on where they might go and how countries should prepare.
What triggered this locust invasion and its geographical spread?
Locusts are capable of going from a solitarious form – where they act as a solitary individual – when there’s not many of them to the swarming devastating gregarious form – where they develop group behaviour and act in unison – when there are many of them. This is called gregarisation. The change towards gregarious behaviour is triggered by physical contact and they then become inclined to disperse together to find food. Read more…
