More than a year after a locust plague was declared in Madagascar, a control program finally is about to begin.Massive swarms of the insects have damaged or destroyed large areas of cropland and pastures.Aerial and ground surveys are underway in Madagascar to map the locations of the Malagasy migratory locust swarms.Annie Monard, locust response coordinator for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, she is currently in Madagascar.Monard was among those who sounded the alarm over a year ago.Despite the announcement of a locust emergency, the response was slow to develop. That allowed the swarms to spread even further from the southwest where they’re endemic.The FAO launched emergency campaigns in 2010, 2011 and 2012, but they were not enough to stop the locust plague from developing.“What we did and what FAO does for many, many years is always to promote what we call preventive control strategy.
