Mubarak gives directives for eliminating locusts swarms
Egypt, Local, 11/18/2004

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak entrusted Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and Minister of Agriculture Ahmed El-Leithi with doubling efforts to combat the swarms of locusts that attacked Cairo and some governorates to prevent a disaster.

In a telephone call with Agriculture Minister, Mubarak stressed the necessity to provide all potentials for combating the locusts.

Meantime, El-Leithi said that swarms of locusts that moved across several Egyptian areas will have no impact on humans and will cause no damage to crops.

During a news conference at the ministry's HQs in Cairo, Leithi added that all reports from his ministry offices and from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) showed that those locusts were only crossing the Egyptian airspace, and are not mature enough to cause any damage, besides they are flying in small groups.

The conference was attended by FAO's Cairo Director Abdullatif Sabet, FAO locust-combat department representative Mounir Boutros and several Agriculture Ministry officials and experts in locust resistance.

The Minister said that 50 ministry observatories were in charge of combating desert locusts that firstly were spotted in Egypt's western desert in late October after crossing into the country from Libya.

El-Leithi said that centre allover Cairo and south of the capital were equipped with insecticide capable of controlling the situation.

During the conference, El-Leithi received a phone call from President Mubarak.

Following the contact, El-Leithi said that Mubarak was personally following up the developments in the locusts file and getting assured on the steps taken by the ministry to combat the swarms.

Several parliament members pressed for an interpellation abut the plague and the parliamentary committee of agriculture and irrigation will hold an ad-hoc meeting on Saturday.

The insects have devoured millions of acres of crops and millions of tons of grain in West Africa, which is suffering its worst locust invasion in more than a decade, according to FAO.

Last week, the agriculture ministry said that it successfully fought off an invasion of its northwestern coast by swarms of desert locusts by using a combination of pesticides, but Nadi Mohamed, who leads the locust-combat team in Matrouh, said that earlier in the day that operations are continued to get rid of the locusts which raided the region over the past few days.

Locuts fighting was still continuing in other Egyptian provinces such as Al-Sharqiy and North Sinai.

Moreover, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) ruled out on Wednesday that Egypt would see more swarms of locusts in winter or spring.

FAO's anti-locust emergency unit said in a report that more swarms of immature locusts are not expected because southwestern wind from Sahara desert extending to Libya has virtually stopped.

The report recommended, however, taking all precautionary measures and conducting regular locust surveys.

The report further attributed the sudden locust attack to strong wind blowing from southwestern borders with Libya and volatile weather conditions in southern Italy and southwestern Greece, which affect the weather in northern Egypt.

The weather in these areas is not persistent from October through March.

If reached the northwestern areas in Egypt, the locusts would probably move to Suez Canal, east of Egypt, then to southeastern parts on the Red Sea to reach its final destination Eritera, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

Minister El-Leithi said that locusts would have no impact on humans and would cause no damage to farm crops.

During the news conference at the ministry's HQs in Cairo, El-Leithi added that all reports from his ministry offices and from the FAO showed that those locusts were only crossing the Egyptian airspace, and are not mature enough to cause any damage, besides they are flying in small groups.

Previous Stories:
  Navigation in Suez Canal back normal   (11/10/2004)
  Cabinet approves establishment of Egyptian-British University   (11/10/2004)
  First wooden coffin of 13th dynasty unearthed in Luxor   (11/10/2004)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search