Madagascar Locust Swarms Threaten Food Security
Recent Developments
01The provided sources do not include verified 2025–2026 reporting showing a new escalation in swarm extent, population affected, or economic losses.
02FAO and UN reporting continue to frame the locust plague as a major food-security risk for Madagascar, with potential impacts on rice, maize, pasture, and livestock livelihoods.
Interventions
- FAO-led locust surveillance and control efforts remain the main documented intervention in the provided sources, including aerial and ground monitoring, pesticide treatment, and efforts to prevent swarms from spreading.
- National anti-locust control operations in Madagascar, supported by international partners in earlier campaigns, have focused on protecting cultivated land and pasture from infestation.
What Works
- Early surveillance and rapid treatment of hopper bands and swarms is the most consistently supported approach in the sources, because locusts can multiply quickly and spread across large areas if not controlled early.
- Large-scale coordinated control programs can reduce damage to staple crops and pasture; historical assessments show that treatment campaigns targeted millions of hectares to limit spread and protect production.
How to Help
- Support humanitarian and agricultural-response organizations working on locust surveillance, pest control, and food-security protection in Madagascar.
- Back NGOs and UN-linked relief efforts that help rural households protect crops, livestock feed, and livelihoods during infestation periods.
- Advocate for sustained international funding for preventive locust control and food-security programs in Madagascar.
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Verified Organizations
Organizations Helping(8)
The ministry is actively leading the 2025/2026 anti-locust campaign, with plans to treat 600,000 hectares of farmland exposed to locust invasion. Its approach combines aerial and ground control operations to reduce infestation spread and protect crops and rural livelihoods.
IPC contributes by projecting the severity of acute food insecurity linked to locust impacts, including estimates of how many people may face crisis levels of food insecurity. In this problem space, its method is to provide early warning and evidence for targeting humanitarian and agricultural interventions where locust outbreaks threaten livelihoods.
Madagascar’s Locust Control Centre works with FAO on field surveillance, detection of hopper bands and swarms, and execution of control operations across infested zones. The national system focuses on routine monitoring, rapid response, and treating outbreak areas before locusts reproduce and spread further into agricultural regions.
OCHA is coordinating a humanitarian response plan for Cuba focused on health, water, sanitation, and food security. The UN reports that its plan has enabled transport of water, sanitation, health, shelter, and protection supplies, and has supported solar-powered water pumps, portable treatment plants, and backup generators in health facilities to keep critical services running despite fuel shortages.
