ISLAMABAD, Sept 22: Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has announced that the summer breading of desert locust in Pakistan and India has almost come to an end.

“Summer breeding is coming to an end along both sides of the Indo-Pakistan border where only low numbers of locusts are present,” states the FAO in its latest forecast.

The last few weeks were very important for both the neighbours as the FAO had warned of increase in the production of the insect and flying of the swarm into the Indo-Pakistan borders via Oman.

The FAO says small scale breeding is in progress in northeast Oman that was affected by cyclone Gonu in June.

During the past week, most of the desert locust activity remained concentrated in Yemen. Locusts are declining in the interior of the country where breeding occurred since April but vegetation is now drying out. Most of the locusts are moving towards the coast while some may be in the central highlands.

So far, several small swarms have arrived on the southwest coast near Aden and control operations are in progress. Some swarms have tried to move across the Gulf of Aden to northern Somalia.

Earlier this week, fishermen reported dead locusts in the sea near Aden and locals reported low numbers of gregarious adults in northern Somalia near Hargeisa and Erigavo. Locusts are also expected to arrive on the Red Sea coast in Yemen and perhaps on the coast in Sudan and Eritrea.

This year, breeding by local populations has started early than normal on the coast in Sudan and Eritrea, and survey teams are monitoring the situation closely.

Heavy rains have caused flooding in West Africa and Sudan. In West Africa, most of the rains and floods were well south of the desert locust breeding areas while in Sudan, some breeding areas were affected.

Surveys are in progress in Mauritania where, so far, only small-scale breeding has been detected, which is normal for this time of year. Surveys are not possible in northern Mali, northwest Niger and western Sudan due to insecurity.

Despite what has been mentioned recently in the media, it is very unlikely that a locust invasion will occur in West Africa because of the floods this year.

During quiet periods known as recessions, the FAO says, desert locusts are usually restricted to the semi-arid and arid deserts of Africa, the Near East and South-West Asia that receive less than 200 mm of rains annually. This is an area of about 16 million square km consisting of about 30 countries.

According to FAO during plagues desert locusts may spread over an enormous area of some 29 million sq km extending over or into parts of 60 countries. This is more than one-fifth of the total land surface of the world.

During plagues the desert locust has the potential to damage the livelihood of a tenth of the world’s population.

Locust swarms can vary from less than one sq km to several hundred sq km. There can be at least 40 million and sometimes as many as 80 million locust adults in each sq km of swarm.