FAO launches anti-locust program to protect food security for 20M people in Central Asia, the Caucasus

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said Thursday it would help 10 countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus to preserve 25 million hectares of cultivated farmland from a "locust crisis" that is threatening food security for 20 million people, Agence France-Presse reports.

"Locusts are a serious threat for agriculture, food security and livelihoods in both regions, including adjacent areas of northern Afghanistan and the southern Russian Federation," FAO said in a statement (5/19). The five-year program, which is getting $1.6 million in support from the U.S. for its launch, "will promote preparedness, early warning and early reaction activities in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, all of which are at risk of attack by Italian, Moroccan and migratory locusts, FAO reported," the U.N. News Centre writes (5/19).