The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned in March that northwest Africa was at risk of a massive invasion of locusts which could have "a dramatic impact on food security in the region".

Last month, the FAO repeated its warning about the swarming insects, saying locusts are "breeding in thousands of spots over large areas south of the Atlas Mountains stretching from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia to western Libya."

Delegates from Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia discussed the threat posed by locusts to farming, with UMA Secretary General Habib Boulares of Tunisia recalling that a regional action plan called on UMA members to share information on the problem and jointly monitor the situation.

Member states urged that specialists be trained to fight the locust problem and international organisations be made aware of the extent of the danger posed by locusts.

North African experts are due to meet soon with the FAO to evaluate the problem and study ways to fight it.

Desertification is another threat to the region's agriculture. In Mauritania, the Sahel desert is encroaching on forested land at a rate of seven kilometers (more than four miles) a year, according to official statistics.

More than three-quarters of the country is desert, representing an area twice the size of France or four times the size of the western US state of Colorado.

Boulares said "positive contacts" had been made with different institutions, including the World Environment Fund and the European Commission, to fund projects to fight desertification in north Africa.

TERRA.WIRE