(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-05-01) Ilukor, John; Gourlay, Sydney
The desert locust, the most destructive migratory pest in the world, is highly mobile and feeds on large quantities of any kind of green vegetation, including crops, pasture, and fodder with great potential to cause deterioration in the food security situation across the East Africa region. Ethiopia experienced two invasions of locust in 2020. The impacts of locust invasions are exacerbated by Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) restrictions, war, and flooding which are expected to substantially reduce Ethiopia’s economic growth. This brief reports on the scope, intensity, and type of damage incurred by rural households as a result of both the first and second locust invasions in Ethiopia, based on high-frequency phone survey data. It provides a rich set of background information on the COVID-19 high frequency phone survey of households which can be leveraged to assess the differential impacts of the COVID-19 and desert locust invasion.
