An infestation will reportedly hit over 20 regions due to this year’s unusually warm winter
A locust invasion spurred by an unusually warm winter is expected to hit 21 regions of Russia, Izvestia reported on Monday, citing an internal report commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture. The ministry will reportedly form special teams to combat the insects and protect harvests.
The report stated that the number of regions exposed to the locust infestation during this agricultural season have increased by more than 30%, with the total area to be treated increased by 100,000 hectares (1,000 square kilometers).
The unusually warm winter season in Russia will result in a 30-50% increase in agricultural pests, plant diseases, and weeds, the report projected, adding that the ministry has allocated nearly 86 million rubles ($860,000) for treating the affected areas and organizing special teams for fighting the insects.
According to the document obtained by the newspaper, the southern regions of Astrakhan and Volgograd, as well as Orenburg, Samara, and Saratov in the southwest of the country, are in the high risk area along with Ulyanovsk, Chelyabinsk, and the Siberian regions of Irkutsk and Novosibirsk.
The republics of Kalmykia, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Chechnya, Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Chuvashia, Khakassia, and Yakutia, as well as the regions of Krasnodar and Stavropol in the south of Russia and Altay Region in Siberia could also be affected by the locust invasion.
Polytrophic pests pose the greatest threat to the agricultural sector, as they are capable of affecting a wide range of plants and crops, Aleksandr Malko, the head of the Russian Agricultural Center, which prepared the ministry’s report, told Izvestia.
“The Russian Agricultural Center conducts phytosanitary monitoring of locusts and other harmful organisms on the territory of Russia, Malko said. “A set of measures, including agrotechnical, biological, chemical, and other methods of protection, is applied to protect the crops.”
He added that harvests could be affected not only by locusts, noting that according to the center’s estimates, there are nearly 1,200 harmful factors in Russia, including 529 species of pests, 219 diseases, and 434 types of weeds, all of which can destroy crops.
