Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region
| Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region | |
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| Acronym: | CRC |
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| Type: | Intergovernmental Organization |
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The Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region (CRC) is one of the regional commissions operating under the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and forms part of FAO’s Desert Locust monitoring, early warning, and information system. The Commission was endorsed in 1965 and came into force on 21 February 1967. It currently comprises 17 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.
Contact [email protected] for any correspondence.
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
Available resources authored by this organization
| Name | Year published | Category | Author | Species purview | Geographic purview | Language |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 evaluation of field trials data on the efficacy and selectivity of insecticides on locusts and grasshoppers | 2014 | Information hub, Instructional guides | Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia | English | |
| Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region (CRC) ad hoc, emergency, other meetings | 1971 | Technical report, Reference works | Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia | English | |
| Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region (CRC) committee meetings | 1971 | Technical report, Technical reports | Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia | English | |
| Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region (CRC) locust management materials | Guide, Instructional guides | Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | English | |||
| Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region (CRC) promotional materials | Media, Interactive visual tools | Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia | English | ||
| Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region (CRC) survey reports | 1971 | Technical report, Technical reports | Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia | English | |
| Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region (CRC) training and workshops | 1971 | Technical report, Technical reports | Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia | English | |
| Desert locust upsurge progress report on the response in the Greater Horn of Africa and Yemen | 2020 | Technical report, Technical reports | Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia | English | |
| EMPRES meeting, research, workshop, survey report collection | 2002 | Technical report, Reference works | Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases | Egypt | English | |
| Estimate the potential impact of DL resources control an outbreak campaign excel file worksheets | Technical report, Interactive visual tools | Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia | English | ||
| FAO commission for controlling the desert locust in the central region fifty years fighting desert locust | 2016 | Technical report, Interactive visual tools | Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia | English | |
| FAO-CRC Executive Secretary witnessed Eritrea’s commitment to control desert locust | 2019 | Technical report, Technical reports | Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Eritrea | English | |
| Field efficacy trials with the entomopathogen Metarhizium anisopliae var. acridum (Green Muscle) against the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) and monitoring of it's operational use | 2007 | Guide, Instructional guides | Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia | English | |
| Field tests on an integrated Differential GPS navigation and spray monitoring system for aerial Desert Locust control operations | 1998 | Technical report, Technical reports | Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Sudan | English | |
| Glossary on Desert Locust | 2009 | Guide, Reference works | Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Italy | Arabic, English | |
| Guide for identifying desert locust | Guide, Reference works | Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia | English | ||
| Guidelines for developing research proposals | Guide, Instructional guides | Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia | English | ||
| Locusts have caused problems for quite some time | Guide, Interactive visual tools | Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia | English | ||
| Metarhizium anisopliae reference list of papers | Information hub, Reference works | Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia | English | ||
| Operational-scale field trial with Green Muscle | 2005 | Guide, Instructional guides | Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia | English | |
| Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for Desert Locust Control | Guide, Instructional guides | Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe | English |
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