Millions of grasshoppers continue to devastate Sardinia: the 2020 invasion is 'the most massive in the last 70 years'

Millions of grasshoppers continue to ravage Sardinia and the 2020 invasion is 'the most massive in the last 70 years'.

He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

Millions of grasshoppers are devastating Sardinia, reappeared not only in the Tirso valley, as Coldiretti Nuoro Ogliastra declared in May when sounding the alarm, but also beyond. This was underlined by Coldiretti Northern Sardinia, declaring that they occupied the countryside of the Goceano, especially Bultei, Anela, Bono, Bottida and partly Pattada, with reports also in Escalaplano.

And so about 25.000 hectares of crops were destroyed, with damage in 50% of cases.

A similar invasion had already occurred last year with many hectares of land occupied by locusts, which caused large losses to about 20 farms located between Ottana, Bolotana, Orotelli and Orani. Now, in an already difficult period due to the coronavirus, the nightmare repeats itself.

The president of Coldiretti Nuoro Ogliastra, Leonardo Salis, declared in May:

“Unfortunately, the problem materialized again this year. A horrible year with companies already seriously tested by the Coronavirus emergency as well as by all the other problems we know, not least that of climate change. For over 20 days we have been monitoring the situation together with the farms concerned and at the same time we are already taking action at the institutions to ask for immediate interventions to contain its spread ".

And at the beginning of June, the director of Coldiretti Nuoro Ogliastra, Alessandro Serra, specified that unfortunately blocking the locusts in this now advanced stage is difficult, and the only hope lies in the intervention of natural predators such as birds.

In turn, the president of Coldiretti di Bultei, Matteo Orritos, declared that it is a plague that is causing huge losses:

“It is a plague, there are millions and they are causing us huge losses, in a few days we will be forced to buy feed and fodder because what remains of ours is insufficient and we must also use it as a substitute for pastures. Only when you see them do you realize how many they are and the damage they cause. In Bultei we are also collecting signatures to present them to the mayor ”.

Coldiretti has been denouncing the problem of locust invasions for some time, mainly due to climate changes which determine long periods of drought alternating with intense periods of rain, and numerous uncultivated lands present on the Sardinian territory, in turn due to the crisis in the countryside linked to the remuneration of agricultural products lower than the production costs. This obviously affects agricultural activities by making them unsustainable and which is part of the broader framework of an agricultural policy that favors the interests of large transnational groups.

A real biological catastrophe that has led local farmers, and the most affected municipalities, to want to ask for a state of natural disaster given the already tragic situation of many local agricultural companies affected by the economic crisis following the coronavirus "with 6 out of 10 companies ( 58%) who recorded a decrease in activity. "

In reality, not only Sardinia is facing this problem, locusts have proliferated in worrying numbers in other countries as well, so much so that the World Bank has defined the invasion of 2020 "the most massive of the last 70 years" with 23 countries threatened "between East Africa, the Middle East and Asia".

The causes? Always the climatic changes that would have increased the scorching heat "in a 2020 that ranks as the hottest since 1800 with temperatures 1,41 degrees higher than the average", according to Coldiretti. Climatic conditions that cause "an anomalous development of this insect with" biblical invasions "which, recalling those of the past, cause serious damage to the countryside but can also reach cities", thus affecting not only the fields but also vegetable gardens and gardens.

COLDIRETTI NORTH SARDINIA. THE RACKS INVADE THE GOCEAN ALSO The invasion of the ...

Posted by Coldiretti Nord Sardegna on Monday, June 1, 2020

SOURCES: Coldiretti / Coldiretti North Sardinia