Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region (CRC)

The Commission also ensures that all member countries are provided with updated information with regard to Desert Locust infestations; assists the national research organizations and institutes of its members and coordinates research activities in its Region.

Responsibilities of the Commission
As per the Establishment Article, the function of the Commission in the Central Region is to plan and promote research and training at national, regional and international levels, also actions relating to survey and control of the Desert Locust to ensure preventive control strategy against Desert Locust infestations that might damage agricultural crops as well as graze lands. Hence, the Commission is contributing to food security and fight against hunger and poverty in Africa and the Middle East in particular in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea Coast.

In this context the Commission is strengthening the cooperation and coordination between member countries, promoting joint activities at national, regional and international levels in order to carry out Desert Locust survey and control operations whenever and wherever it is necessary. The Commission is providing and supporting the member countries with the necessary references and information regarding Desert Locust, and also with all research results and documentations (available on the Commission website www.crc-empres.org). In this conjunction, and after 1997 when EMPRES Programme became operational, the Commission was brought back to life and its role became more dominant. This resulted in numerous publications and references, in English and Arabic, produced by the Commission; building capacities and creating self reliant national master trainers in the region who are recruited also by other regions to benefit from their training skills. Research is also another field of activity that the Commission, during EMPRES life, initiated, supported and encouraged. The key role that the Commission played within EMPRES in the Central Region was the establishment of the Desert Locust Information Offices in the front-line-countries i.e. Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen, where these offices were created and strengthened with various equipment in order to receive and analyze Desert Locust and ecology information and hence disseminate it to the concerned staff to undertake their survey/control operations and other actions. All these CRC activities during EMPRES made the original scope and role of the Commission more dynamic as before EMPRES years; the Commission became more powerful, effective and valuable.

Preparedness in human, financial and equipment resources are rather vital in preventive control strategy of Desert Locust, for that reason, EMPRES had introduced contingency planning and encouraged member countries to prepare their national dynamic contingency planning. Needless to mention the importance to put in practice the national contingency plan through organizing field simulation scenarios, but this could not be implemented, simply due to lack of capacity. In addition to advanced technologies such as eLocust2 and remote sensing, new approaches need to be addressed e.g. in the following fields:

- More active use of bio-control agents;
- Environmental monitoring of control operations;
- Mapping of restricted and vulnerable areas

The Commission convenes regular sessions, at least once every two years, in which the Chairman, a vice-Chairman and the Executive Committee members are elected by the delegates. The Executive Committee of the Commission was composed of five members of the Commission, but after the adherence of the three additional countries, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Eritrea, the members of the Executive Committee was raised to seven. Its members and the Chairman are elected by the Commission at each regular session. The Committee meets at least once between any two successive regular sessions of the Commission.

The EMPRES Central Region Programme

The primary development objective of the EMPRES Central Region Programme was stated as:

“To strengthen the capabilities and capacities of the national, regional, and international components of the Desert Locust management system to implement effective and efficient preventive control strategies based on early warning and timely, environmentally sound, early control interventions.

The major components of improved preventive Desert Locust control management are focused on:

• Enhanced interaction between the stakeholders;
• Early detection and early warning;
• Introduction of economic and environmentally safer control technologies including research;
• Capacity building and training;
• Contingency planning and rapid deployment.

Enhanced interaction between the stakeholders

Planning, and the identification of the goals is being done jointly with all stakeholders in participatory planning sessions, namely during annual EMPRES Liaison Officers Meetings and Consultative Committee Meetings.

The regional entities, the Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region (CRC) and the  Desert Locust Control Organization for Eastern Africa (DLCO-EA)  are fully supporting the introduction of advanced preventive locust control strategies, and formerly non-CRC EMPRES countries such as Djibouti, Ethiopia and Eritrea also joined the Commission.

Early detection and early warning

As a result of these efforts, most countries are preparing targeted survey plans based on the ecological situation and forecasts. The quality and timeliness of the survey reports has improved steadily over the years and, in terms of quantity, the number of locust reports received from the member countries increased by more than 50 % since 1997. Modern technologies such as remote sensing have been introduced for more precise targeting of potentially important survey areas. Real-time field data transfer technology (eLocust) is in the process of being introduced. The Desert Locust data management system, RAMSES, has been introduced at all national Locust Information Offices and is being used as a standard tool for the analysis of field data.

Economic and environmentally safer control technologies

The aims of this component are:

• To make control operations more efficient;
• To reduce the campaign costs;
• To reduce the environmental hazards of locust control.

DLCO-EA aircraft have been provided with DGPS equipment to help the pilots to improve spray swath placement during aerial control operations and to allow better recording/management of spraying operations for more targeted and economic pesticide application by air.

Guidelines for sprayer testing have been developed and the experiences with regard to barrier treatment compiled. In collaboration with the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) the adult Desert Locust pheromone, Phenyl-Aceto-Nitrile (PAN), has been tested in various field trails. The results demonstrated the effects of PAN on the communication system of gregarious nymphs – resulting in the loss of the cohesive behaviour and reduced immunity. Mixing PAN with organophosphates, the application rate could be reduced in these trials by 60 %. The trials on PAN also showed encouraging results on enhancing the effects of  metarhizium products and reducing the costs of biocontrol products significantly.

Several studies on the economic benefits of Desert Locust control in general and preventive control in particular have been conducted under the EMPRES/CR Programme. Because of the complexity of the subject, it was difficult to develop a common understanding. A number of methodological difficulties in evaluating the control efficacy and estimating crop damage, largely related to the mobile and difficult to predict nature of the pest, contributed to this. In addition, it is extremely difficult to estimate economic losses which potentially could have occurred, if control had not been implemented.

However, the effectiveness of preventive strategies as followed by EMPRES /CR could be demonstrated for the first time under real conditions during the upsurge since 2003, which was threatening the Central and the Western Regions. The affected countries in Central Region succeeded to contain the upsurge relatively fast by May 2004, while in the Western Region, in the absence of preventive control strategies, the situation was not brought under control by end of 2004. More than 12 Million ha had been treated against the Desert Locust whereby in the Central Region it was only necessary to carry out control operations on about 220,000 ha.

Capacity building and training

The aims of the capacity building component are:

• To strengthen the control capacity of the member countries;
• To build up self-reliant and sustainable national training structures;
• To reduce accidents with chemical pesticides;
• To increase the efficiency of the national survey and control teams.

Since 1997 more than 600 locust officers and/or plant protection staff, scouts and farmers received training on various technical locust management subjects. The total target group of persons in the Central Region, directly or indirectly involved in locust control operations, is about 550 staff. Taking high staff turn-over into consideration, it is assumed that at least 50 % of all plant protection officers currently in place have received training.

A standard locust training manual has been developed and has been distributed in the form of a training kit to all member countries to facilitate the national Master Trainers and other national training entities to operate standard locust training courses in a more sustainable way. The manual includes session plans based on the updated  FAO Desert Locust Guidelines, guidance on training methods, participatory training techniques, and the use of visual aids. It contains reference course programmes, pre- and post-course assessments, useful forms, and lists of necessary course material.

A series of overhead transparencies have been compiled which can be used during training courses. They are also available on CD

Contingency Planning

The successful introduction of rapid deployment mechanisms and Contingency Planning dependents on:

• Being prepared for a possible but unlikely emergency situation;
• Enhancing the capacities of the affected countries to react rapidly in possible outbreak and upsurge situations in the most appropriate and rational manner;
• Identifying the essential procedures and mechanisms at national, regional and international level required to mobilize additional resources in time.

Two regional Contingency Planning field seminars have been conducted in collaboration with FAO and EMPRES Western Region in 2002 and 2003 to develop a common sense among stakeholders on the need of contingency arrangements. The seminars revealed that upsurge situations will most likely rapidly exceed national resources. It became obvious that suitable early reaction mechanisms need to be in place at national and regional level, but also at international levels in order to synchronise the various efforts and to speed up the process of making additional resources available. As a result of this demonstration, EMPRES/CR, in close collaboration with CRC in all strategic questions, developed mechanisms to support affected countries in their efforts to be prepared for a possible emergency situation.

These mechanisms are built along the following components:

• Close interaction with the Desert Locust Information Service of FAO (DLIS) and the countries to obtain the most detailed picture of the global locust situation and likely developments.
• Functional Locust Information Offices and well organized national locust information systems.
• National Desert Locust Steering Committees, involving different national institutions, the FAO Representation and local donor agencies.
• Regular updating of the available national resources and informing the Commission of the likely shortfalls, in order to organize necessary assistance well in advance.
• Ad Hoc Emergency Prevention Meetings with the immediately concerned countries to jointly analyse the predicted situation, and to convene appropriate countermeasures in the context of Regional Action Plans.
• Based on the regional action plans, more detailed National Action Plans are being prepared and brought to the attention of the national authorities and local donor agencies.
• National Locust Bulletins to inform the national authorities and the local donor community and the Commission of the locust situation, of actions taken and the control capacities of the LCU.  

Conclusion