Caterpillar plague creates emergency

An invasion of crop-eating caterpillars has devastated crops and pushed up the price of fresh produce in Liberia, pitching the West African nation into a state of emergency, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization

As Geographical went to press, the caterpillars were advancing in their millions, devastating crops, entering buildings and contaminating freshwater supplies with their faeces, posing a major threat to health and the already precarious food security situation there.

Described as Liberia’s worst such plague in 30 years, the three-centimetre-long larvae fi rst appeared in Bong county in central Liberia, before quickly spreading to Gbarpolu in the northwest and Lofa, which borders Guinea and Sierra Leone. These areas produce the majority of Liberia’s food crops, including cassava, plantains, bananas and potatoes, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

The caterpillars are thought to be African army worms, which eventually develop into nocturnal moths that can fl y tens of thousands of kilometres before the females lay up to 1,000 eggs each. According to Dr Winfred Hammond, head of the UNFAO’s Liberia offi ce, three emergency committees have been set up but ‘the country lacks the financial resources and technical expertise to combat the emergency on its own and will require international assistance’.

April 2009