Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region

Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region
Acronym:	CRC
Website:	View URL
Geography
Headquarter country:	Egypt
Species purview:	Desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria)
Categories
Type:	Intergovernmental Organization
Focus:	Management, Governance, Education, Information Hub
Keywords:	Training, Regional cooperation, Monitoring, Control, Forecasting, Natural sciences

The Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region (CRC) is part of the FAO Locust Watch monitoring and information systems managed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). It was established in 1965 and has 16 member countries: Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

Each commission member annually contributes to the budget, determined by various economic and risk factors. The Commission’s Trust Fund finances the CRC staff's salaries and most Commission activities. From 1996 to 2006, the Commission also benefited significantly from multi-donor support through FAO’s Emergency Prevention System (EMPRES) for managing transboundary animal and plant pests and diseases.

The Commission aims to improve cooperation among member states and focuses on early detection and rapid response to locust threats to protect crops. It supports building human and institutional capacity and the adoption of modern locust control technologies, particularly in frontline countries. The Commission also encourages regional collaboration and regularly produces guidelines and reference materials. Emphasizing environmentally safe locust management, it promotes preparedness and contingency planning.

Regional characteristics

Summarized from FAO desert locust atlas 1997

The "Central Region", as defined by the FAO, is characterized by significant geographical features, including the eastern African and western Arabian highlands, which are divided by the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Ethiopian-East African rifts. These features create complex atmospheric circulations and rainfall patterns, which in turn influence the spatial and temporal distribution of locust breeding.

In the northern part of the Central Region, locust breeding occurs during summer, winter, and spring. The summer breeding belt, influenced by rains south of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), extends from Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea to southern Arabia, continuing the pattern from the "Western Region". Spring breeding happens due to eastward-moving atmospheric disturbances, covering the Middle East, much of the Arabian Peninsula, and both sides of the Red Sea. Winter breeding primarily takes place along the Red Sea coasts of Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Arabia, with some activity on Yemen's Gulf of Aden coast. The overlapping rainfall patterns in these areas allow for continuous breeding and the rapid production of successive generations.

In the southern region, locust breeding and movement are driven by the ITCZ's seasonal shifts. The "Short Rains" from October to January coincide with its rapid southward retreat, while the "Long Rains" from March to July align with its slower northward advance. Breeding belts overlap, but the timing and spread are reversed.

The breeding belts stretch through eastern Africa, from eastern and southern Ethiopia and Somalia to Kenya and northern Tanzania. Summer breeding from July to October occurs along the southern flank of the Ethiopian highlands in the Ethiopian Rift and northwestern Somalia, as an extension of the northern summer breeding belt. Further south, breeding is limited to parts of southwest Ethiopia, northwestern Kenya around Lake Turkana, and occasionally parts of Uganda and southeast Sudan. Additionally, winter breeding takes place on the northern coastal plains of Somalia.

View FAO desert locust atlas for maps

Related organizations

The following organizations represented on HopperWiki are associated with this organization:

• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

References

Desert Locust Control Organization (n.d.) About. Retrieved August 19, 2024, from http://desertlocust-crc.org

Ries MW, Adriaansen C, Aldobai S, Berry K, Bal AB, Catenaccio MC, Cigliano MM, Cullen DA, Deveson T, Diongue A, Foquet B, Hadrich J, Hunter D, Johnson DL, Pablo Karnatz J, Lange CE, Lawton D, Lazar M, Latchininsky AV, Lecoq M, Le Gall M, Lockwood J, Manneh B, Overson R, Peterson BF, Piou C, Poot-Pech MA, Robinson BE, Rogers SM, Song H, Springate S, Therville C, Trumper E, Waters C, Woller DA, Youngblood JP, Zhang L, Cease A (2024) Global perspectives and transdisciplinary opportunities for locust and grasshopper pest management and research. Journal of Orthoptera Research 33(2): 169–216. doi:10.3897/jor.33.112803.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Popoc GB (1997) Desert locust atlas. Rome. https://hopperwiki.org/images/e/ec/Atlas_of_desert_locust_breeding_habitats.pdf