African Development Bank grants two million dollars to fight locusts

TUNIS – The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a grant of US$2million (N$13,2 million) to help eight countries on the continent battle the worst locust invasion in more than a decade, a statement by the bank said yesterday.

The grant is intended to help the governments of Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, and Tunisia protect farmland, pastures and forests, to safeguard the environment against the destruction wreaked by the swarms of locusts and to ensure food security, the statement said. The grant funds will be managed by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which will buy pesticides and organise aerial crop spraying in the eight countries.According to the bank, the FAO fears that this year’s locust invasion could be worse than that in 1987, which caused US$300 million worth of damage.FAO chief Jacques Diouf said on a visit to Senegal last week that Africa would require 100 million dollars to battle this year’s locust swarms.Agriculture and defence ministers from 16 African countries are to gather next week in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, to discuss a common strategy to battle the locusts, Senegalese officials said Wednesday.”The meeting will focus on how we can marshal our forces to protect the most vulnerable areas,” an official at Senegal’s agriculture ministry said, adding that a meeting of experts would take place Monday, the day before the ministerial-level gathering.-Nampa-AFPThe grant funds will be managed by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which will buy pesticides and organise aerial crop spraying in the eight countries.According to the bank, the FAO fears that this year’s locust invasion could be worse than that in 1987, which caused US$300 million worth of damage.FAO chief Jacques Diouf said on a visit to Senegal last week that Africa would require 100 million dollars to battle this year’s locust swarms.Agriculture and defence ministers from 16 African countries are to gather next week in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, to discuss a common strategy to battle the locusts, Senegalese officials said Wednesday.”The meeting will focus on how we can marshal our forces to protect the most vulnerable areas,” an official at Senegal’s agriculture ministry said, adding that a meeting of experts would take place Monday, the day before the ministerial-level gathering.-Nampa-AFP