Somalia

Somalia
Somalia is within:
Region:	Africa
Subregion:	Sub-Saharan Africa
Intermediate region:	Eastern Africa

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Somalia is a country located in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Kenya. It has the longest coastline in Africa, bordered by the Gulf of Aden to the north and the Indian Ocean to the east. The country can be categorized into five distinct geographic zones based on its topography. These include the northern coastal plains, the Golis mountain range in the north, the central coastal plains, a wide limestone-sandstone plateau that spans central and southern Somalia, and the floodplains of the Juba and Shabelle rivers in the south, which offer the greatest agricultural potential. The country has faced significant challenges in recent decades, including civil conflict, political instability, and humanitarian crises.

Ecology

Somalia’s climate is arid to semi-arid with hot conditions year-round, with minimal seasonal variation. Temperatures typically range from 30 to 40 °C (86 to 104 °F), though they can exceed 45 °C (113 °F) in northern regions and drop below freezing at higher elevations. Some of the highest mean annual temperatures in the world have been recorded in Somalia.

The key agricultural regions are located in the south, where the farming system can be categorized into three types: subsistence rain-fed farming, often integrated into agro-pastoral systems with typical farm sizes ranging from 2 to 4 hectares; small-scale irrigation and oasis farming; and commercial farming, which is primarily large-scale and relies on irrigation.

Somalia is impacted by the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria). During recessions, the frequency of recorded breeding in Somalia is generally low. However, breeding can happen at any time of the year, and in certain years, consecutive periods of favorable rainfall during winter, spring, and into summer have led to significant population growth and the transformation of solitary locusts into gregarious swarms.

The main areas where adult locusts and hoppers are most commonly found during recessions are the coastal and sub-coastal plains of western Somalia. The primary recession habitats are linked to fine sandy and silty soils, which accumulate along waterway beds and deltas, and are later shaped into hummocks, drifts, and dunes by wind erosion and deposition. After rain and flooding, there is typically robust growth of annual vegetation, including common food and shelter plants for the desert locust, such as Heliotropium ramosissimum, Aerva javanica, Gisekia pharnaceoides, Boerhavia sp., Cleome spp., as well as grasses like Aristida, Latipes, Tragus, and Dactyloctenium.

Outbreaks

Somalia's location in the Horn of Africa makes it a key area for desert locust outbreaks when conditions such as heavy rains and cyclones create favorable breeding grounds.

2019-2021

The country was significantly impacted by the recent desert locust outbreak. This outbreak was one of the worst in decades, affecting large swathes of East Africa. The outbreak began in 2019, driven by unusual climatic conditions that favored locust breeding. The situation escalated in 2020-2021, with heavy rains and cyclones creating ideal conditions for the formation of massive locust swarms. These swarms caused extensive damage to crops and pastures, threatening food security and livelihoods. In response, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, along with regional governments, implemented extensive control measures such as aerial and ground pesticide spraying, monitoring, and early warning systems to combat the infestation and mitigate its impacts. Read more here

During the 2019-2021 desert locust outbreak, Somalia was the sole country to rely exclusively on the biopesticide Metarhizium acridum and the insect growth regulator teflubenzuron, avoiding the use of potentially harmful chemicals to safeguard its pastoral system. FAO initially ordered four tons of Metarhizium biopesticide, enough to treat about 80,000 hectares at 50 g/ha. From 2019 to 2021 a total of 11 tons was used in Somalia. Despite challenges in field evaluations of this campaign, valuable insights were gained. This effort is considered a significant breakthrough, marking the largest area ever treated with biopesticides in a single campaign globally.

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  Desert locusts covering the ground in Ceel-Gaal village, in Salal region, Somaliland. ©FAO/Isak Amin
• 
  A swarm of desert locusts crossing the road in Chidhi village, Salal region, Somaliland. ©FAO/Isak Amin
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  Farmers holding adult desert locusts in Somalia ©FAO/Isak Amin
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  Desert locust nymphs in Somalia ©FAO/Isak Amin

View the full FAO Flickr photo album of the 2019 desert locust outbreak in Somalia

Management and research

Somalia is part of the FAO Desert Locust Control Organization for Eastern Africa (DLCO EA) and since 1995 it has also had the opportunity to join the FAO Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region (CRC) but has yet to do so officially.

The Somali Ministry of Agriculture works closely with the FAO to implement locust control activities on the ground. This includes coordinating with local authorities and communities to carry out surveillance, early warning, and control operations.

Following the 2019-2021 desert locust outbreak, Somalia opened the National Desert Locust Monitoring and Control Centre in Qardho, Bari Region, on November 3, 2021. This center acts as the primary early warning and control hub for locusts in Puntland and across the nation. The FAO established the center with financial support from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and USAID to enhance locust response efforts and reduce their impact on food security and livelihoods in the region.

Species gallery

• Highlighted species for Somalia
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  Desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria)
• 
  Senegalese grasshopper (Oedaleus senegalensis)

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
Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region	CRC	View	Intergovernmental Organization	Management, Governance, Education, Information Hub	Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia
Desert Locust Control Organization for Eastern Africa	DLCO EA	View	Intergovernmental Organization	Education, Governance, Management, Research	Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania
FAO Desert Locust Control Committee	DLCC	View	Intergovernmental Organization	Development, Management, Governance	Afghanistan, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Netherlands, Niger, Oman, Pakistan, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Spain, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, [[United Arab Em...
Intergovernmental Authority on Development	IGAD	View	Intergovernmental Organization	Development, Management, Research	Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda
Ministry of Agricultural Development of Somalia	MoAD	View	Government	Development	Somalia
Ministry of Agricultural Development of Somaliland		View	Government	Development, Management	Somalia
Plant Protection Department at the Ministry of Agricultural Development of Somalia			Government		Somalia

Resources

Name	Species purview	Year published	Resource link	Descriptive keyword	Language	Geographic purview	Author
2014 evaluation of field trials data on the efficacy and selectivity of insecticides on locusts and grasshoppers		2014	View	Pesticides, Management, Pesticide management, Chemical control, Information hub	English	Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia	Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Atlas of desert locust breeding habitats		1997		Breeding zones, Habitat, Map, Distribution, Biology, Ecology, Behavior, Phase polyphenism	English	Ethiopia, Senegal, Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia, Algeria, Mauritania, Mali, Egypt, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates	Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, George Basil Popov, G.B. Popov
Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region (CRC) ad hoc, emergency, other meetings		1971		Management, Survey, Biology, Monitoring, Toxicology, Physiology, Ecology, Forecasting, Locust commission meeting, Collection	English	Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia	Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region (CRC) committee meetings		1971		Management, Survey, Biology, Monitoring, Toxicology, Physiology, Ecology, Forecasting, Locust commission meeting, Bundle	English	Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia	Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region (CRC) survey reports		1971		Management, Survey, Biology, Monitoring, Toxicology, Physiology, Ecology, Forecasting, Locust commission meeting, Bundle	English	Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia	Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region (CRC) training and workshops		1971		Management, Survey, Biology, Monitoring, Toxicology, Physiology, Ecology, Forecasting, Locust commission meeting, Collection	English	Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia	Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Desert locust control in Somalia between 2019 and 2021		2022		Biopesticide	English	Somalia
Desert locust field handbook		2020	View	Species identification, Management	English	Israel, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Morocco, Algeria, Niger, Mauritania, Chad, Mali, Lebanon, Sudan, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Somalia, South Sudan, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Libya, Kenya, India, Oman, Bahrain, Djibouti, Yemen, Uganda, Egypt, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Palestine, Tanzania, Syria, Iran, Turkey	Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International
Desert locust invasion responding to a crisis within a crisis		2020	View	Presentation, Outbreaks, Emergency response	English	Yemen, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda
Desert locust master training manual		2003	View	Management, Training manual	English	Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia	Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Desert locust surveillance and control programmatic environmental assessment		2020	View	Monitoring, Environmental assessment, Management	English	Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia	United States Agency for International Development
Desert locust upsurge progress report on the response in the Greater Horn of Africa and Yemen		2020	View	Locust outbreaks, Management, Report, Progress report	English	Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia	Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
East Africa desert locust crisis fact sheets		2019, 2020, 2021		Emergency response, Outbreaks, Series	English	Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo	United States Agency for International Development
East Africa regional desert locust impact monitoring reports		2021		Locust outbreaks, Food security, Report, Set	English	Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda	The Food Security and Nutrition Working Group
Estimate the potential impact of DL resources control an outbreak campaign excel file worksheets				Chemical control, Report, Excel files, Series	English	Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia	Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
FAO commission for controlling the desert locust in the central region fifty years fighting desert locust		2016	View	International development, Community development, Environmental assessment, Decision making	English	Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia	Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
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	View	Advice, Metarhizium acridum	English	Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia	Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Global response plan January–December 2020		2020	View	Emergency response, Outbreaks, Appeal	English	Iran, Yemen, Pakistan, Iraq, India, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Uganda	Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Greater Horn of Africa and Yemen Desert locust crisis appeal		2020	View	Appeal, Emergency appeal	English	Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Yemen, Kenya, Uganda, Eritrea	Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Guide for identifying desert locust			View	Locusts, Biology, General locust education	English	Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia	Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Guidelines for developing research proposals			View	Locusts, Research, Research proposal, Guide	English	Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia	Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Locusts have caused problems for quite some time			View	Locusts, Biology, Chemical control, Mechanical control, Spraying, Data analysis	English	Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia	Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Metarhizium anisopliae reference list of papers			View	Biological control, Infestations, Information hub	English	Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia	Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Operational-scale field trial with Green Muscle		2005	View	Agriculture, Chemical control, Metarhizium acridum, Trial, Biocontrol, Management	English	Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Somalia	Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Progress report on the response in the Greater Horn of Africa and Yemen		2021		Report, Advisory note, Forecasting, Monitoring, Locust outbreaks, Locusts, Outbreaks, Emergency response, Early warning, Livelihoods, Aerial control operations, Summary, Food security, Chemical control, Biological control, Community development, Collective movement, After action review, Agriculture, Crop health, Economics, Infographic, Advice, Public health, Pesticide management, Progress report, Set	English	Yemen, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya	United States Agency for International Development

Highlighted media coverage

Name	Author	Language	Species purview	Substance	Resource link	Year published
‘Like an Umbrella Had Covered the Sky’: Locust Swarms Despoil Kenya		English		News article		2020
As Locusts Swarmed East Africa, This Tech Helped Squash Them		English		News article		2021
Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region (CRC) promotional materials	Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations	English		Promotional material
Crunch, Crunch: Africa's Locust Outbreak Is Far From Over		English		News article
Ethiopia used chemicals to kill locusts	Malavika Vyawahare	English		News article		2023
FAO and government of Somalia open permanent desert locust monitoring centre		English		News article		2021
From crisis to innovation	Think Tank for Sustainability, Elena Lazutkaite, Emily Kimathi	English		News article	View	2024
New Generation of Desert Locusts Breeding in Horn of Africa		English		News article		2020

Projects

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