Chapter 445: Locust Plague and Taking Advantage of the Fire
After his marriage, Ernst had a lot of things to deal with. The construction progress of railways and factories was generally not a big problem. As for the transformation of canals and rivers, Constantine was responsible for supervision.
"Your Highness, this is a telegram from the Northern Province. According to the local government, a locust plague has broken out in the neighboring Sultanate of Wasangali."
Ernst took the telegram and read it: "This matter! Let me see, um, desert locusts, old friends."
It is not an exaggeration to say that they are old friends. Ernst had dealt with this kind of desert locust in his previous life. Of course, the most important thing is the excessive hype of the Internet, making this kind of locust seem to be an incurable disease. This made Ernst, who was working in Tanzania at the time, speechless.
One of the most basic rumors is that in 2020, African desert locusts will cross the Red Sea, invade India, and may enter the Far East.
Let’s not worry about whether the desert locusts can adapt to the environment of the Far East. The only thing is that the source of the locust plague was actually the Arabian Peninsula. However, the pictures and texts provided by the unscrupulous media were all from Kenya and Somalia, misleading people into thinking that the locust plague spread from Africa across the Red Sea to India.
That locust plague crossed the Red Sea, but jumped from the Arabian Peninsula to Somalia and Kenya. In fact, this incident should be blamed on the Arab region. The source of the locust plague was in the Rub' al Khali Desert, which belongs to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Yemen. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as the rich people in the Middle East, did not play their role at all. Due to the civil unrest in Yemen at the time, they did not spread pesticides in time, which caused the locusts to reproduce again, eventually forming a once-in-a-century locust plague. Africa was the victim.
Somalia was already suffering from famine, and the locust plague made it even worse. The situation in Kenya was slightly better, but the locust plague was far more harmful to the two countries than to the Arabian Peninsula, making the already poor families even worse off.
Just by listening to the name, you can know the active area of the desert locust. Desert locusts mainly live in deserts and semi-desert areas. Expanding the areas that may be threatened, that is, the intersection of deserts and grasslands. Of course, if a large-scale outbreak occurs, the affected area will be wider, but it is only an impact, not a disaster.
This range roughly includes the entire North Africa (Sahara Desert), the Red Sea coast, the Arabian Peninsula, the northwest arid area of the South Asian subcontinent (currently India), and the Horn of East Africa.
Areas of East Africa that may experience a desert locust invasion are Turkana Province (Ethiopian Highlands), Northern and Juba Provinces (Somalia), Eastern and South Prussia Provinces (Kenya), Uganda and South Sudan, and parts of Tanzania.
Some areas are very spiritual. Why some areas? Those are the border areas, or the intersection areas of semi-humid and semi-arid areas.
In other words, desert locusts are not adapted to the humid climate environment further south, which is actually the case. However, even so, the area in East Africa that may be affected is more than one million square kilometers (mainly deserts, semi-arid deserts, and arid grasslands), so defensive measures must be taken.
“Notify the Ministry of Agriculture and have pest control centers in various parts of the northern region take preventive measures to prevent the spread of the disaster and reduce the impact on our East Africa. In particular, the Eastern Province and South Prussia must be on high alert and take advantage of their population to avoid major disasters.”
East Africa is unable to solve the problem of desert locusts, at least not at the moment, and can only try to avoid it.
In fact, Ernst did have a complete solution, but it was of no use. The main reason was that the population in the Somalia region of East Africa was too small.
The most effective way to deal with locusts is to use advanced scientific and technological means, which East Africa is powerless to do. The second most effective way is to use human wave tactics, mobilizing the masses to eliminate the locust plague through various means.
However, the total population of East Africa in Somalia is only more than 300,000, while the desert area is more than 100,000 square kilometers. The area where desert locusts live is the desert. It is impossible to let all people go into the desert to destroy the locust laying sites. That is simply unrealistic.
The last is biological control, but this method is not a method at all. The difference between desert locusts and other locusts is that they live in the desert. Raising chickens and ducks is ineffective. Who would raise chickens and ducks in the desert!
Similarly, it is difficult for other creatures to survive in the desert, so it is not realistic to introduce other creatures to control locusts. Once desert locusts become rampant, there is really no effective way to control them except technological means.
Of course, East Africa is not doing nothing. The population in Somalia is small, but in Kenya it is quite large, especially in the southern region where the population is more concentrated. In addition, southern Kenya is an important cotton and coffee producing area in East Africa, so it is necessary to actively mobilize local forces to prevent locust invasions.
Monitor the locust invasion path and carry out artificial intervention in the locust egg-laying areas, such as turning the soil, burning, irrigation and other effective measures.
In fact, once the locusts enter the East African Plateau, they will not be able to make much of a difference, as the geography and environment will block most of them.
For example, desert locusts are extremely dependent on wind direction and generally fly with the wind, but most areas of East Africa are under the control of the southeast trade winds, so if desert locusts want to enter the East African Plateau, they have to fly against the wind.
Not only that, as the terrain of the East African Plateau rises, the temperature also drops. Desert locusts like high temperatures, especially temperatures over 40 degrees, and reproduce fastest. This is why desert locusts do not invade mid- and high-latitude regions (such as Europe).
Therefore, after the desert locust outbreak in northern East Africa, most of them will move towards the Arabian Peninsula and the South Asian subcontinent (India) with the southwest monsoon.
The locust outbreak this time occurred in northern Somalia, so East Africa only needs to take precautions in Kenya, an important agricultural production area. As for the Somalia region in East Africa, it all depends on fate.
The possible consequence is nothing more than an increase in the price of Somali bananas imported into Europe. It would be better to wait until the disaster is over before planting again. The climate is the same all year round anyway, and with the water from the Shabelle and Juba rivers for irrigation, replanting can be done at any time.
"Next, we need to make good arrangements for food dispatch to ensure food security in Somalia, and have our people connect well with merchants in Zanzibar. If the locust plague spreads to the Middle East, we need to fill the gap and seize the food market as soon as possible."
If the Middle East is hit by a disaster, it will definitely be good news for East Africa. If every locust plague can achieve this effect, Ernst would wish that such a "good thing" would happen every year, and the disaster in East Africa would not be a big deal.
Because Ernst never vigorously developed agriculture in northern East Africa, 80% of the food in Somalia was transported from Dar es Salaam and Mombasa.
Without too much investment, there will naturally not be too much loss. Although Somalia's banana planting industry is very important to Somalia, it can also be planted in other regions of East Africa and is not irreplaceable.
East Africa's agricultural production areas can currently be divided into three major regions: one is the East African Plateau wheat-growing area, one is the coastal rice-growing area, and one is the Great Lakes region. The Great Lakes region is a multifunctional planting area where everything is grown.
Next comes Zambia, Zimbabwe, Turkana Province, then the northern pastures, the rubber plantations in the Mitumba Mountains, and finally Somalia (Northern Province and Juba Province).
Basically, important grain-producing areas and cash crop-producing areas will not be affected by the locust plague. If they were placed in a country with a free economic system, they would definitely not be able to withstand a disaster of this level.
But the East African Kingdom is not a country with a free economic system. The losses suffered by the unilaterally affected areas will be covered by the state, so the farmers will not go bankrupt, and without bankruptcy, there will be no unrest.
The same is not true for the Middle East. Once it suffers huge agricultural losses, the Ottoman Empire and colonies such as Egypt will have headaches.
Ernst even unkindly hoped that this locust plague would severely damage the wheat-producing areas in northwest India (mainly today's ****), so that East Africa could occupy more food markets.
Of course, this idea is just something we should just think about. A locust plague that happens once in a century is not so easy to encounter.
(End of this chapter)
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