El Salvador

El Salvador
El Salvador is within:
Region:	Americas
Subregion:	Latin America and the Caribbean
Intermediate region:	Central America

El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America. It is bordered by Honduras to the north and northeast, Nicaragua to the east across the Gulf of Fonseca, the Pacific Ocean to the south, and Guatemala to the west and northwest. In 2021, the total rural population was 1,685,520 and the total crop cultivated area was 881,000 ha.

Farmers make up just 14 percent of the economically active population, with most being subsistence smallholders, who operate on plots smaller than 2.1 hectares, consuming nearly all of their production of staple foods like maize and beans and live on less than $200 per month.

The country has seen modest economic growth in recent decades, averaging an annual rate of 2.5 percent from 2013 to 2019. National poverty rates present a mixed picture: moderate poverty has remained relatively stable, slightly below pre-pandemic levels despite a rise between 2019 and 2020, while extreme poverty increased in 2022, remaining 4.1 percentage points higher than the 2019 rate.

Food security is persistently at risk due to climate fluctuations, extreme weather events linked to climate change, and internal issues like erosion, deforestation, insufficient conservation efforts, and excessive use of agrochemicals.

The CAL was declared a national pest in 1955 in El Salvador. Recent outbreaks were reported in 2016 and 2018.

Species gallery

• Highlighted species for El Salvador
• 
  Orphulella punctata
• 
  Romalea obscura
• 
  Central American locust (Schistocerca piceifrons)
• 
  Abracris flavolineata
• 
  Giant red-winged grasshopper (Tropidacris cristata)
• 
  Traveler grasshopper (Rhammatocerus viatorius)
• 
  Gray bird grasshopper (Schistocerca nitens)
• 
  Broad-tipped conehead katydid (Neoconocephalus triops)
• 
  Chromacris colorata

Organizations

Locusts and grasshoppers are typically managed through a national plant protection system led by a country’s plant protection organization, ministry of agriculture, or equivalent biosecurity authority. They are often supported by specialized pest control branches, natural resource agencies, and regional bodies when outbreaks cross borders. These agencies are usually the first point of contact for surveillance, reporting, permits, quarantine decisions, and control operations. If the country belongs to one of the FAO locust commissions, those bodies provide a regional framework for early warning, field surveillance, information sharing, and coordinated response, helping countries align monitoring, contingency planning, and control actions across borders.

Organization name	Acronym	Website	Type	Focus	Geographic purview
Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture	IICA	View	Non-governmental Organization	Development	Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela
International Regional Organization of Plant and Animal Health	OIRSA	View	Intergovernmental Organization	Management, Governance, Education	Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Dominican Republic

Resources

Name	Species purview	Year published	Resource link	Descriptive keyword	Language	Geographic purview	Author
Action plan for managing the Central American locust		2019	View	Management, Biology, Species identification, Biopesticide, Robotics, Drones, Technology, Pesticide management, Survey	Spanish	Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Dominican Republic	International Regional Organization of Plant and Animal Health
Situation and recommendations for controlling the Central American locust in the countries of the OIRSA region		2020	View	Management, Geographical differences, Situation bulletin	Spanish	Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador	International Regional Organization of Plant and Animal Health

Highlighted media coverage

No results found in the database at this time—please reach out if you have any to share!

Projects

No results found in the database at this time—please reach out if you have any to share!