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Pastimes : Prophecy -- HYPE or HOPE? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JeffA who wrote (1435)	4/22/2002 9:52:04 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 5569

Millions of locusts threaten breadbasket of Afghanistan Mon Apr 22, 8:04 AM ET Steven Komarow USA TODAY KABUL, Afghanistan (news - web sites) -- After years of famine, war, earthquakes (news - web sites), and drought, Afghanistan is fighting another plague: locusts. Millions of the insects have hatched in the foothills of north-central Afghanistan, an area that serves as the breadbasket of the nation. The hungry hoppers are heading toward the wheat fields that cling to the canals and streams. Those fields have the potential for producing the best yield in years, if the crops aren't eaten first. ''The whole strategy is to defend the crops, to kill (the locusts) before they reach the flying stage'' when they no longer can be controlled, says Richard China, manager of the United Nations (news - web sites)' farm programs in Afghanistan. Locust infestations are an annual event in Afghanistan. Diligent farmers usually can contain the damage by trapping the young, still-earthbound locusts in small trenches as they migrate across the desert toward the green fields. The big bugs then are buried alive and turned into fertilizer. But the locust-control program fell on hard times during the Taliban regime. Three years of drought, combined with the nation's political unrest, caused farmers to leave their land untended while the locust population grew. Now, for the first time in four years, adequate rains are falling in key agricultural areas of Afghanistan. But the locust eggs laid last year mean the locust population is way up. Adding to the problem: Control measures were late getting underway. Without intervention, up to 70% of the wheat crop would be lost in some areas, according to U.N. estimates. Because the population of the mighty Moroccan desert locust is so large this spring, trenches alone aren't enough. Pesticides have been shipped in, along with 1,300 backpack sprayers and several large spraying rigs on pickups, officials say. ''There will be some damage'' to the crop, China says, but ''I don't anticipate a situation where any farmer's is totally destroyed.'' story.news.yahoo.com