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Cooperative
Extension Service |
For Immediate Release
Story Contact: Alex Latchininsky: (307) 766-2298
Contact: Steven L. Miller, Senior Editor
Phone: (307) 766-6342
E-mail: slmiller@uwyo.edu
Archived News Site www.uwyo.edu/agadmin/news/news.htm
Date: Feb. 1, 2006
UW College of Agriculture on front lines in campaign against African hunger
Efforts by the College of Agriculture at the University of Wyoming are helping fight hunger in African countries at the mercy of locusts.
Alex Latchininsky, assistant professor in the Department of Renewable Resources and UW Cooperative Extension Service entomologist, helped develop a locust-prevention program being used by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. He also spent three weeks last fall in five African countries reviewing for the FAO a portion of the $95 million prevention effort.
“UW maintains a great tradition in applied grasshopper research,” noted Latchininsky, who credits the efforts of Professor Emeritus Bob Pfadt and Professor Jeff Lockwood of the department in keeping the bar raised high.
That’s why the U.S. Department of Agriculture called upon College of Agriculture grasshopper experts to develop train-the-trainer seminars to educate weed and pest specialists and land managers so they could train their clients in 17 western states. The UW experts educated participants from Colorado, Montana, Oregon, Nebraska and South Dakota in 2004 and in Montana, Colorado, Oregon and North Dakota in 2005.
There are only four staff members in the UN’s FAO locust group, said Latchininsky. They rely on consultants and hire specialists such as university professors, government agencies or independent experts to go to affected countries.
Upon a $75,000 contract from the FAO, Latchininsky developed a program similar to the train-the-trainer sessions for use by the FAO. The agency implemented three of UW’s modules – biology, environment, and logistics – and utilized control and survey modules from elsewhere.
Last March, 21 leading locust experts from 10 West African countries were trained. They returned to their respective countries and helped educate locust staff members.
“They are using our methods and approaches from UW to train more than 600 plant protection agents in western Africa,” Latchininsky said.
The FAO anti-locust effort is funded entirely by donations from developed countries. With $90 million funding control efforts in 2003-2005, the FAO wanted to evaluate the program’s effectiveness. For these purposes, Latchininsky visited Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen and Eritrea.
Each has a special locust unit within its ministry of agriculture. Some are large, such as Egypt with a staff of more than 1,500 people and a budget of $1 million per year. Others are not. Eritrea has only four staff members and relies on seasonal help during outbreaks. In each country, training of specialists is the key to a successful anti-locust program.
“I was impressed by the people working in these locust groups,” commented Latchininsky. “Without exception, they are real specialists working 24/7 if the situation occurs.”
Latchininsky’s review followed a summer in which an anticipated locust plague never materialized, thanks mostly to efforts by Mother Nature. FAO locust experts had feared an outbreak because locusts in 2004 had shed their quirky individual behavior, swarmed and swept west to east across Africa leaving officials scrambling to put in place efforts to control the pests in 2005. The locusts are voracious. A small portion of an average swarm – about one ton of locusts – eats the same amount of food every day as 2,500 people, according to FAO information.
Unfortunately, some of the locust breeding sites coincide with areas of military conflicts, like the Darfur province in Sudan or the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Conducting locust surveys and treatments in such areas is very dangerous, said Latchinisky. A survey team in Yemen had their two Toyota LandCruiser vehicles snatched by al-Qaeda while 700 miles from the capital. The team was held captive two days and released, but the vehicles remained detained for three months.
Latchininsky’s visit to Africa was his first. He noted the staggering poverty in countries such as Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is the subsistence farmers who have only a tiny piece of land to feed their families who suffer most from locust swarms.
Latchininsky said helping the FAO battle against locusts is rewarding. “Somewhere, you will help avoid a food crisis,” he said.
On the Web: http://www.fao.org/ag/locusts/en/info/info/index.html
http://www.uwyo.edu/UWRENEWABLE/
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