Recently, customs workers in Lhasa, Tibet, carried out desert locust monitoring work at the Alipuram port.
Recently, the Forestry and Grassland Bureau of Longyang District, Baoshan City, Yunnan Province, carried out an emergency drill to eliminate the desert locust disaster.
One sunny morning, a small car was driving normally on the road, and suddenly there was a large low "dark cloud" not far in front of the car, and the car quickly burrowed into the "cloud" group, and suddenly heard the sound of "snapping", the glass window was full of yellow stains, and two living locusts were lying on the wiper of the front glass of the car, shaking their tentacles and flapping their wings from time to time. It turned out that the "dark cloud" was the "legion" of desert locusts. This is a widely circulated video on the Internet, and the relevant information shows that the video was recently filmed in Pakistan, recording the terrifying scene of desert locusts moving in groups and coming and going in the local area. Similar videos have been circulating on the Internet in recent days, impressing people with the disaster caused by desert locusts.
Pakistan is just one of the countries that has recently invaded the desert locust, which has already ravaged vast areas from eastern Africa to the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf, affecting more than 16 million square kilometers of land and affecting about 20 countries. In view of the huge damage caused by the desert locust to agriculture and green vegetation, Qu Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator of the United Nations, recently issued a joint statement calling on the international community to take more decisive measures to control the spread of desert locust disasters.
The Pakistani-Indian region borders China, and the invasion of desert locusts into the region has undoubtedly sounded a warning bell for us, warning us that we must take precautions, scientifically assess the risk of desert locust invasion that we may face, and make effective preparations for prevention and control.
Many reasons have led to heavy disasters abroad
The desert locust is one of the main agricultural pests in the river valleys and oases of tropical desert areas of Africa and Asia. Kenya in East Africa this year was reported to have suffered the worst desert locust plague in 70 years, with one large swarm alone reaching 60 kilometres long and 40 kilometres wide. Since June 2019, large numbers of desert locusts have gathered in eastern Ethiopia and northern Somalia and have rapidly emerged as the worst desert locust infestation in the region in 25 years. Pakistan has suffered more from desert locusts than the worst locust plague in history in 1993, and this year's losses of wheat alone could amount to $1 billion.
Desert locust plagues occur every year, so why is this year's disaster so large that it has formed a continuous and large-scale disaster? In this regard, Zhang Ze, a researcher at the Institute of Plant Protection of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Shi Wangpeng, a professor at the Department of Entomology of China Agricultural University, explained that freezing three feet is not a one-day cold, and the flooding of desert locusts is the cumulative result of previous years, due to the large base number in previous years, resulting in more spawning; this year's rainfall in East Africa and other conditions are suitable for desert locusts to hatch intensively, forming a huge population, which can not only resist predators, but also greatly exceed the limits of local control capabilities, resulting in its particularly large scale and very serious harm. In addition, climate change and the ecological damage caused by overgrazing in the grassland system of East Africa are also important drivers of desert locust infestation.
It is worth noting that the desert locust, as an insect of the genus Desert Locust in the family Locustidae, can undergo ecological phase mutation, that is, it can change from diaspora to community, which is one of the important reasons for its great destructiveness.
Under normal circumstances, the sparse vegetation in the desert can only maintain the life of a small number of desert locusts, which live separately and fly at night, without bringing disaster to humans. When a large amount of rainwater is concentrated, the plants grow suddenly and the desert locusts multiply in large numbers. As the degree of crowding increases, its behavior changes from individual scattered nocturnal activities to swarms of locusts, numbering up to billions, straddling large areas of land, and can be migrated over long distances with the wind, sweeping through various vegetation in the areas they pass, causing great destructive power.
The migration ability of desert locusts is an important reason for the spread of populations and the increase in harm. Because its body structure is suitable for long-term aerial gliding, the desert locust can use wind to complete long-distance migration journeys when the temperature is right, so its population often crosses the Red Sea at a distance of 300 kilometers from East Africa to the Arabian Peninsula and then invades South Asia. Studies have shown that the desert locust once flew over the Atlantic Ocean from West Africa by wind and invaded the Caribbean.
We must do a good job in both hands of defense and governance
Based on the scientific assessment of the risk of desert locust intrusion, the relevant Departments of China have formulated corresponding prevention and control strategies and made intensive preparations for various preparations.
Know thyself and know the other, and never lose a battle. To properly implement the strategy of "defending against locusts abroad and preparing for war at home," we must have an accurate understanding and judgment of the development of the "locust enemies" abroad, and do a good job of communication and coordination with all parties concerned. On February 23, the Grassland Management Department of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration of China sent personnel to participate in the working group organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs to Pakistan to participate in and guide the relevant aspects of the country to carry out desert locust prevention and control work, share disaster information with Pakistan, India and other countries, carry out coordinated prevention and control, and explore the establishment of international cooperation mechanisms. In addition, the Chinese authorities have closely communicated with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Myanmar and other relevant parties, established an information exchange mechanism, and predicted in advance the possibility and possible ways for the desert locusts to migrate to China.
"The royal locusts are outside the country" must earnestly guard the "national gate" and strengthen port monitoring and entry quarantine. To this end, the national customs system has acted quickly to strengthen the monitoring of the epidemic situation at the ports of entry, especially to strengthen the phytosanitary of goods and means of transport entering Africa and India and Pakistan, strictly prevent desert locust eggs, larvae and adult insects from entering the country from the port, and once found, immediately do pest control.
According to the prediction of the possible invasion route of the desert locust, the monitoring stations in the border area are encrypted and strengthened. According to the "Plan", along the border between China and India, Pakistan and Myanmar, a number of monitoring points are deployed in counties within 200 kilometers of the agricultural area to control the migration of desert locusts at the first time. In addition, a certain amount of monitoring points are set up in key border areas in Yunnan, Tibet, Xinjiang and other places, and special personnel are arranged to observe the migration situation, and once the intrusive locust situation is found, the first time to report.
On the morning of March 10, an emergency drill against the desert locust plague was launched in Longyang District, Baoshan City, Yunnan Province. The professional fire fighting team organized by the Forestry and Grassland Bureau of the district put into the "battle" to eliminate the desert locust plague, and the team members carried spray killing equipment to simulate the occurrence of a desert locust invasion disaster in a certain place, and made emergency dispatches to temper the emergency prevention and control capabilities. This is a drill activity set up by the relevant departments in Yunnan Province to control desert locusts in accordance with the "Plan" and carried out.
The "Plan" requires that by the end of March, in Yunnan, Tibet, Xinjiang and other border areas where desert locusts may migrate and enter, relying on socialized service organizations, 50 professional teams for emergency prevention and control will be formed, each team will be equipped with efficient pesticide application machinery according to local conditions in accordance with the standard of daily operation capacity of not less than 2,000 mu. In addition, the "Plan" proposes that the prevention and control team should strengthen technical training, emergency drills and allocate sufficient materials.
The risk is small but not taken lightly
The desert locusts, which are good at migrating, have invaded the Indo-Pakistani region, what kind of threat will it pose to China next? According to the ministry of agriculture and rural affairs, the General Administration of Customs, and the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, which recently jointly formulated and issued the "Plan for monitoring and preventing desert locusts and domestic locusts" (hereinafter referred to as the "plan"), the probability of desert locusts migrating and invading China is very small, and the prevention strategy of "resisting locusts abroad and preparing for war in China" is adopted.
Desert locusts can fly across the Atlantic Ocean and invade the Caribbean, so why is the chance of invading China so small? In this regard, Kang Le, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and an ecologist and entomologist, recently gave a detailed explanation in an interview with the media. He said the above conclusions were based on environmental factors such as the conditions for the survival and reproduction of the desert locust and the pathways of its possible invasion.
Specifically, the survival and reproduction of desert locusts must rely on tropical and subtropical deserts, must meet certain temperature conditions, studies have shown that desert locust eggs below 18 ° C and above 45 ° C, can not develop. When the temperature is at or below 20 °C, locust activity weakens. Around 40 °C is the condition for the migration activities of desert locust locusts and adults, and the relative humidity of the normal development and rapid maturation of locusts and amphoteric adults needs to reach more than 60%. Benefiting from the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, tropical and subtropical deserts have not developed in the same latitudes in southwest China, and the geographical environment and temperature conditions are not suitable for the survival of desert locusts, that is to say, the east-west stretch of more than 2,400 kilometers, the north-south width of 200 to 300 kilometers, and the Himalayas with an average altitude of more than 4,000 meters are a natural barrier to prevent the invasion of desert locusts.
Although the plateau and high mountains can prevent the infiltration of desert locusts into the interior, in view of the fact that desert locusts can spread to Nepal and India, Tibet and the border areas between the two countries are at risk of invasion, and it is crucial to strengthen monitoring in southern Tibet and adjacent areas of the two countries.
Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia have vast deserts, is it possible to become areas where desert locusts invade and live? In this regard, Kang Le holds a negative view, he believes that the deserts of the two places are temperate deserts, the temperature in winter and spring is too low, and the summer rainfall is too little to meet the breeding conditions of desert locusts. For this route of invasion from Yunnan, Kang Le believes that the probability is also very low, because if the desert locust migrates from this direction, it must break through the rainforests of Bangladesh and Myanmar, and the rainforest is not suitable for desert locusts.
The probability is very small, but the possibility exists, Wang Wenfeng, director of the Lhasa Pest Field Scientific Observation and Experiment Station of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, reminded that due to the influence of the Indian Ocean monsoon, desert locusts can be migrated from India to Myanmar via Bangladesh, and they may enter China from the direction of Yunnan, causing harm and not taking it lightly.