PHILIPPINES: FARMERS HIT BY PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS

Jude Fri 31 Jul 2015, 19:53

Published on Jul 21, 2015
Tagalog/Nat

Farmers in the Philippines province of Pampanga are facing a menace of Biblical proportions - a plague of locusts.

It is feared that as much as 50 per cent of the area's rice and sugarcane harvest may be lost.

Many farmers in this fertile area are fighting against the odds in a battle with one of farming's oldest enemies: a locust plague.

Overwhelmed by the sheer weight of the hungry pests, farmers are forced to watch helplessly while the fruits of their labours are devoured in front of them.

Their numbers are so large that they seem to blot out the sky.

Sugarcane is high on the locust's diet - the effect of their hunger is all to easy to see. With their pincer-like jaws, they make short work of the sugarcane.

After filling their hunger, the locusts ensure that the cycle of destruction continues by breeding.

Local farmers are worried about the effect they will have - it is feared that up to half their sugarcane harvest will be lost.

SOUNDBITE: (Tagalog)
\"Many changes, plenty was lost in the sugarcane, more than 50 percent, now we are deep in debt.\"
SUPER CAPTION: Arman Maglalang, local farmer.

The Maglalang family have run this four-hectare sugarcane plantation for decades.

In a normal year each harvest earns them about two thousand dollars.

However this year is looking bleak. The locusts have halved their income and what little money has to be spent on fertilizers and molasses.

Maglalang has been forced to wage a one-man pesticide war against his enemy.

He urges the government to provide more help with the spraying before it's too late.

SOUNDBITE: (Tagalog)
\"I hope they will send some people to do the spray.\"
SUPER CAPTION: Arman Maglalang, local farmer

Meanwhile, his fight against the locusts goes on. In the short-term, it does not look like one that farmers like Maglalang will win.

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