Locusts, wild animals threaten Mozambique harvests
© 2000 Reuters Limited
September 12, 2000
MAPUTO - Swarms of locusts are devastating crops in Mozambique's southern province of Inhambane, as it struggles to recover from floods earlier this year, agricultural authorities said yesterday.
Antonio Limbau, head of the local agricultural department, said teams had been deployed with large quantities of pesticides to eliminate locusts that had invaded about 160,000 hectares (400,000 acres) of land.Calling the situation critical, Limbau said the locusts were destroying cassava, a staple in the poor southern African country.
"Now we are involved in a fight to eliminate them. So far we have sent large quantities of pesticides and our team there seems to be getting the situation under control," he said.
Local people said their crops were also being threatened by troops of baboons and wild boars and they wanted the government to give them guns to kill the beasts.
Provincial governor Aires Aly promised to deal with the problem but ruled out shooting the animals.