Minister of Agriculture Participates in Symposium on Desert Locust in West African Region

On 26 March, via videoconference, the Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Memma Ould Beibata, participated in the work of a high-level symposium on the scourge of the desert locust, organized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

In his speech on this occasion, the Minister explained that the desert locust threatens agriculture and food security in a vast area extending from North Africa to South-West Asia, making it an international problem with significant economic, social, and environmental repercussions.

He indicated that the recent crisis in our western region between 2003 and 2005 was a clear manifestation of the seriousness of this scourge because the invasion, which affected all Mauritanian agricultural and pastoral areas, exacerbated poverty and caused catastrophic situations in terms of food security, with the cereal deficit estimated at 187,000 tons and all crops having been affected by more than 70 percent.

Like other countries in the same region with seasonal breeding areas, the Mauritanian government has developed an effective preventive strategy to combat the desert locust to reduce the risk of future outbreaks and infestations, as he put it.

He stressed that creating the National Locust Control Center is part of the preventive strategy against the desert locusts adopted by our country. Thus, over the last two decades, this center has experienced significant development at the institutional level, human resources, infrastructure, logistics, and the environment.