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STORY: YEMEN / DESERT LOCUST
TRT: 4:55
SOURCE: FAO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT FAO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: JULY 2020, VARIOUS LOCATIONS, YEMEN
JULY 2020, HAREEB VILLAGE, MA’RIB GOVERNORATE, YEMEN
1. Tracking, drying field infested with Desert Locust hopper bands
2. Walking shot, damaged leaves in a field
3. Zoom out, farmer checking a damaged tree
4. Close up, damaged tree leaf
5. Pan right, Musae'ed Mubarak Ali Al-Gunaimi walks through an infested field
6. Close up, hopper bands eating leaves in a dry field
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Musae'ed Mubarak Ali Al-Gunaimi, farmer and pastoralist:
“As for the damages, they are clear, as you can see, the locusts have eaten all the kinds of crops and left nothing. We do not have the means to protect our lands. People here depend on agriculture for their livelihood.”
8. Med shot, desert Locust hopper bands on a plant
9. Med shot, desert Locust hopper bands jumping on the ground
10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Musae'ed Mubarak Ali Al-Gunaimi, farmer and pastoralist:
“Locust swarms have attacked the farms and did not keep any crop, and now they will eat the animal’s fodder, which we use to feed our sheep. We thank the organization and its staff for helping us.”
JULY 2020, BEIYHAN DISTRICT, SHABWAH GOVERNORATE, YEMEN
11. Close up, desert Locust eating a leaf
12. Med shot, desert Locust hopper bands on a plant
13. Tilt up, desert Locust hopper bands on a tree trunk
14. Wide shot, farmer walking on a field
JULY 2020, AR RUDUD VILLAGE, TARIM GOVERNORATE, YEMEN
15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hussain Mohamed Abdullah Al-Zubaidi, farmer:
“Locusts have eaten everything in four days. They have put their eggs in the sand. Day and night, they are still right there eating trees. They have eaten everything, they left nothing there but the sticks”.
16. Wide shot, spraying vehicle in a field
17. Various shots, man wearing protective suit spraying locusts in a field
18. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hussain Mohamed Abdullah Al-Zubaidi, farmer:
“We want to say thank you FAO for your effort, God bless you for your response. The valley was much better than now, but after locusts have ruined it, most of the trees are gone. Vegetables are gone, most of the crops in the valley are gone, and the farming is over. We hope they continue the controlling operations, because there are still nymphs in the sand. If they don’t control them, all the crops would be lost.”
JULY 2020, BEIYHAN DISTRICT, SHABWAH GOVERNORATE, YEMEN
19. Wide shot, man wearing a protective suit spraying locusts in a field
20. Close up, a spraying machine
22. Wide shot, spraying vehicle in a field
23. Close up, spraying machine at work
24. Wide shot, spraying vehicle in a field
25. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yasir Mohammed Saleh Ali, General Directorate for Plant Protection employee:
“We suffered from the lack of potentials and financial support. However, we thank FAO for their effort and the General Directorate for Plant Protection for facilitating this task for us. God willing, we will assume the responsibility and provide all we can. However, we still need an additional team because we couldn't cover the whole area. We couldn't cover all the area because we have only two cars here and one car for surveying.”
JULY 2020 HAREEB VILLAGE, MA’RIB GOVERNORATE, YEMEN
26. Wide shot, spraying vehicles arriving
27. Pan right, spraying vehicle at work
28. Close up, spraying machine
29. Various shots, men wearing protective suits and spraying locusts
The livelihoods of farmers and pastoralists in Yemen have been heavily affected by the ongoing desert locust infestation. The ravenous agricultural pest has damaged crops in many areas of the country putting a strain on thousands of people already exhausted by years of conflict.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said it was supporting Yemen’s Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation in desert locust control operations through logistics and by training field teams.
Desert locusts have attacked crops of radish, onion, sesame, watercress and even date palms, resulting in significant losses for farmers.
“Locust swarms have attacked the farms and did not keep any crop, and now they will eat the animal’s fodder, which we use to feed our sheep” explained Musae’ed Mubarak Ali Al-Gunaimi, farmer and pastoralist from Hareeb Village, Ma’rib Governorate.
“Locusts have eaten everything in four days” says Hussain Mohamed Abdullah Al-Zubaidi, farmer from Ar Rudud Village, Tarim Governorate, adding that, “they left nothing there but the sticks.”
FAO said Yemen is a significant breeding ground for desert locust and controlling the infestation in the country is crucial to prevent a new spread of the pest both in Horn of Africa and in Southwest Asia.
FAO said it was supporting desert locust control operations through logistics, providing over 14,850 litres of pesticide and by training 393 field teams in effective control techniques and health, safety, and environment best practices.
“SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yasir Mohammed Saleh Ali, General Directorate for Plant Protection employee:
“We suffered from the lack of potentials and financial support. However, we thank FAO for their effort and the General Directorate for Plant Protection for facilitating this task for us. God willing, we will assume the responsibility and provide all we can. However, we still need an additional team because we couldn't cover the whole area. We couldn't cover all the area because we have only two cars here and one car for surveying.”
Unfortunately, not all areas of the country are accessible mainly due to the security situation, giving the locusts the time and space for breeding.
Considered the worlds’ most damaging migratory pest, the desert locust can reproduce at lightening pace given the right conditions. Every three months, a breeding cycle can see their numbers grow by 20 times, exponentially.
Desert locusts target crops and vegetation used as forage by pastoralists’ herds, and they eat their own weight a day (2 grams). There can be from 40 million to 80 million locust adults in each square km of a swarm. Swarm sizes can range from under 1 square kilometre to several hundred square kilometres. Just one small swarm (1 square km) has the potential to eat the same amount of vegetation and crops in one day as 35,000 people.
Seasonal weather changes are now driving the pest to move in search of green vegetation to eat. In inland breeding areas where the last two years have been marked by good rains, conditions have now dried out over the past month, reducing the amount of vegetation available there. The migration of desert locusts to new areas is seeing an uptick of activity on Yemen’s coast and other areas of the Arabian Peninsula.
