Unseasonal locust invasion threatens cashew nuts, key cash crop

Guinea-Bissau has been hit by an unseasonal invasion of desert locusts which threatens to damage the small West African country's cashew nut trees that are currently in flower.

Exports of cashew nuts are the main source of foreign exchange for this former Portuguese colony and about two thirds of its peasant farmers depend on the crop for a meagre cash income.

Locusts invaded several countries of West Africa between June and November 2004 causing localised heavy damage to crops and grazing. Since then most of the insects have migrated back across the Sahara desert to their winter feeding and breeding grounds in Morocco, Algeria Tunisia and northern Mauritania.

However, Agriculture Minister Joao de Carvalho told IRIN that remnant swarms had been crossing into eastern Guinea-Bissau from neighbouring Senegal since 19 December in large numbers that posed a threat to local agriculture.

"If we cannot stop this invasion from spreading to other regions by the end of this week the consequences will be catastrophic for the national economy since right now we are in the flowering season of the cashew nut trees which provide the country's main export," he said.

Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior told Radio Bombolom, a popular private radio station in the capital Bissau, that the cabinet would hold a special meeting later this week, after which the government would issue an international appeal for aid.

This was likely to include an appeal for crop spraying aircraft, since Guinea-Bissau has none of its own, he said.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) had given Guinea-Bissau US$400,000 to help fight the locust invasion and spray teams had already been sent to the affected areas around the eastern towns of Bafata and Gabu.

Government officials said it was the worst locust invasion suffered by Guinea-Bissau in living memory. The Agriculture Minister said he was planning to tour the affected area with an FAO official on Thursday to assess the situation.