This ray of hope has to be explored further and adapted widely at a time when locust swarms threaten to endanger harvests and food security across parts of Africa and Asia for the rest of the year, as experts have warned. The locust menace could not have come at a more inopportune time, considering the problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Desert locusts, which live in areas between west Africa and India, cause the most devastation and like to breed in moist conditions. Eggs hatch two weeks after they have been laid, and hoppers become adults after about six weeks. These insects live for three months. The alarming fact is that adult locusts can eat their body weight every day, and fly up to 150km a day in search of new supplies. Each swarm could have millions of locusts, capable of stripping bare vast tracts of vegetation and farmland. An initial infestation of locusts in December was expected to die out during the current dry season. But unseasonal rains have allowed several generations of locust to breed, resulting in new swarms forming.
Given that the breadbasket regions of both India and Pakistan are being threatened by the biggest locust swarms for more than 25 years, the silver lining has emerged from Pakistan’s Okara district where farmers earn money by trapping locusts that are turned into high-protein chicken feed by animal feed mills. The concept is the brainchild of Mohamed Khurshid, a civil servant in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research, and Johar Ali, a biotechnologist from the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, according to an article by Rina Saeed Khan, a freelance environmental journalist. The enterprising Pakistani duo were inspired by an example from Yemen. Under the slogan, “Catch locusts. Earn money. Save crops”, the project offered to pay farmers 20 Pakistani rupees ($0.12) per kg of locusts. Since locusts cluster on vegetation and ground from sunset to sunrise, the community members were able to haul in about seven tonnes of the pests a night. By selling bag loads of locusts to chicken feed manufacturers in the area, each farmer was able to make up to $125 per night.
Chicken feed made from the high-protein insects have earned plaudits from poultry breeders. The only point to be careful about was to ensure the locusts were harvested from areas not sprayed with chemical pesticides. Locusts could also be used to make fish and dairy feed as well. Given that both India and Pakistan have billions of chicken being raised, in addition to several fish and dairy farms, catching locusts has immense potential as an environment-friendly way of controlling the pests menace while ensuring good income for the community members involved. While this concept is ideal for populated areas, chemical spraying may be inevitable in large desert areas.