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Belgium supports Lebanon in the surveillance and control of desert locust
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desert locust incursion, which crossed the border from the
Syrian Arab Republic. While Lebanon does not harbour desert locust breeding areas, it can be exposed to rare incursions during upsurges in the region, such as those that occurred in 2004 and 2013. In response to this latest incursion, the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) was able to quickly mobilize to manage the invasion as soon as it was identified and located, thanks to limited equipment and training provided earlier by the Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust (CRC) in the Central Region. Given its lack of dedicated pesticide stocks and equipment for desert locust, the MoA was forced to use part of its existing pesticide stocks allocated for the sunn pest and spray using a Lebanese Army helicopter equipped with ultra-low volume (ULV) spraying equipment.
BEIRUT: The arrival of locust swarms in Lebanon has caused panic among the country’s farmers.
Videos showing the insects flying over farmland in the towns of Ersal and Ras Baalbek in Bekaa circulated on social media, with the hashtag #locust trending in Lebanon on Friday as people made sarcastic comments about the latest crisis to hit the beleaguered country.
The Lebanese military said that helicopters had begun spraying pesticides over Baalbek and Ras Baalbek to “fight and eradicate” the desert locusts.
Ersal Mayor Bassel Al-Hujairi recounted seeing “millions” of locusts flying and attacking cherry trees and crops.
“Locusts have invaded one-third of Ersal,” he told Arab News. “As we rushed to find out the size of the disaster, locust swarms had already gone across the town, which means that in the early hours of Friday locusts were able to cross 15 km, heading from barren areas toward Ersal. If these swarms multiply, they can cover the sun.”