In the Lavalle area of Santiago del Estero Province.
(Photo : SENASA )
At present, Argentina is gripped by an attack of locusts after 60 years, making farmers and fumigators struggle with the problem, says The New York Times.
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"It's the worst explosion in the last 60 years," said Diego Quiroga, the agriculture agency's chief of vegetative protection. "It's impossible to eradicate; the plague has already established itself. We're just acting to make sure it's the smallest it can be and does the least damage possible."
Senasa, the government's agricultural inspection agency, is tapped by provincial authorities to decimate the problem in the dry forests of the north. However, these efforts may not be adequate. With locusts becoming a flying throng in the next few days, they threaten the crops and grasslands in the country.
While a few groups of locusts appeared in small pockets last June, they soon expanded due to the mild and rainy weather, which created fertile breeding grounds right till the winter. It led to sudden increase in population in spite of official measures to control them.
The Food and Agriculture Organization had warned last November that climate change would boost the locust plagues in Africa, but Argentina had not been referred to.
"There is clearly an impact in our country, too," Quiroga said. "We are definitely being affected."
The convenient whipping post is former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, with farmers accusing her of not taking the UN agency's warnings seriously. Yet, it is not really understood whether climate change is the cause of the problem.
"We don't know exactly where we're at," said Juan Pablo Karnatz, who represents the farmers of Argentina. "We may have contained some pockets, but it's not a definitive victory. If they fly, it could be disastrous."
Currently, Argentina's agricultural inspection agency says that it has managed to limit 31 outbreaks of locusts in Catamarca, Santiago del Estero and Cordoba, according to Yahoo News.