The Desert Locust has ravaged the Horn of Africa and Southwest Asia, posing serious threats on agricultural production and

food security of the inflicted regions. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United nations (FAO) has issued a

A research team led by Prof. HUANG Wenjiang and Dr. DONG Yingying from CASEarth has tracked the migration path

of the Desert Locust and make a detailed analysis on the possibility of the Desert Locust invasion of China.

The research combines multi-source Earth Observation data (including GF series in China, MODIS and Landsat series in US,

and Sentinel series in EU), meteorological data, field data, and self-developed models and algorithms for Desert Locust

monitoring and forecasting based on the Digital Earth Science Platform developed by AIR.

Fig.1 shows the migration path of the Desert Locust from Year 2018 to 2020. Due to the influence of Northeast Monsoon

and the barrier of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, it has a lower probability of the Desert Locust in the Indo-Pakistan border

invading China at present, according to the analysis. However, if the locust in Pakistan and India cannot be controlled

effectively, and even disasters erupt, then when the Southwest Monsoon is extremely strong, it may have a higher

probability for the locust moving from India to Myanmar via Bangladesh, and higher risk to invade China's Yunnan and

Tibet from May to June 2020, according to the analysis.

Fig.1 Migration path of Desert Locust (Year 2018-2020).

Fig. 2 shows the time series remote sensing monitoring results. From October to December 2019, the locust swarms at the

Indo-Pakistan border began to breed in three generations and migrated to spring breeding areas of southern Iran and

northern Oman via Baluchistan. From January to February 2020, locust swarms existed in northwest Pakistan, Nara,

Tharparkar, and Cholistan. Some of them moved north of Bahawalpur, and some had the trend of migration to southwest

Pakistan and southern Iran due to climate impact.

Fig.2 Time series remote sensing monitoring of Desert Locust damaged area in Pakistan from Year 2019 – 2020.

Before May 2020, affected by the Northeast Monsoon, there are three potential migration paths of locusts along the

Indo-Pakistan border, which are Indo-Pakistan border-Bahawalpur-Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Indo-Pakistan border-Quetta

and southern Region, Indo-Pakistan border-southwestern Baluchistan, shown in Fig.3.

Fig.3 Migration path of Desert Locust in Pakistan from Year 2019–2020.

Scientists warn that, if the Desert Locusts in Pakistan are not effectively controlled in the adult stage in May 2020, the

locust plague will continue to outbreak, which may cause a severe blow to Pakistan’s agricultural production.

In addition, although the Indian locust plague has been controlled to a certain extent, affected by the southwest monsoon

from May to June, locusts on the Indo-Pakistan border may migrate from Pakistan to India, continue to invade Nepal,

Bangladesh, Myanmar, and may a higher risk to invade China’s Yunnan and Tibet.

Considering China's biodiversity, climate and other conditions are conducive to further breeding and migration of locusts,

coupled with the local Migratory Locust, one of the main pests in China, it will bring serious threats to China’s food security.

Scientists suggested the government to carry out large-scale locust disaster monitoring and early warning, while boosting

global cooperation on Desert Locust prevention to help ensure global food security.