Inner Mongolia is being hit hard by a locust plague that is stripping the area’s grasslands.

Legions of the ravenous insects have attacked some 10 million hectares across the region’s plains -- 10 percent of the total grassland area in this north China autonomous region -- according to a report by China Central Television Station (CCTV).

The locusts began to swarm at the end of July and they are now expanding their territory at a rate of 20,000 hectares every day.

They are expected to cause a direct economic loss of 900 million yuan (US$109 million), officials estimate, while indirect economic losses could amount to 4 billion yuan (US$480 million).

“My income this year will decrease by at least 40 to 50 percent,” one herder told CCTV. That means he is likely to earn no more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,200) for the year.

The voracious insects have devastated more than 667 hectares of his land, and he says that hundreds of his sheep cannot find sufficient food.

Zhang Zhuoran, an official in charge of Inner Mongolian grassland preservation, says that a lack of funds has hampered efforts to quell the outbreak. He says that they only have enough money to treat a quarter of the 5.3 million hectares that have been most seriously hit.

The central government has invested 26 million yuan (US$3.2 million) in the fight against locusts this year, while the regional government spent another 40 million yuan (US$4.8 million).

But even spraying only the most seriously hit areas will require about 160 million yuan (US$19 million).

The local government is considering collecting fees from the herders, but many say they cannot afford such a tab.

“If I pay 0.5 yuan (6 US cents) per mu (one 15th of a hectare), I’ll have to pay 5,000 yuan (US$600) for the meadow I own,” a herder said to CCTV. “That’s nearly half of my annual income. I can’t afford that.”

A total of 14 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions have been affected by clouds of locusts this year.

By late June, the infestation had affected 970,000 hectares of farmland in 10 provinces and municipalities, said the Ministry of Agriculture. At the same time, grasshoppers attacked more than 13.3 million hectares of grassland, half of it in Inner Mongolia.

Grasshoppers do not migrate and tend to be less harmful than locusts, which may travel in swarms of billions of insects, devouring everything in their path.

When a locust population grows too large or the environment becomes unsuitable, creating a shortage of food, the normally solitary insects become agitated, gather in very large numbers and finally develop a single migrating swarm, or plague. Once a plague of locusts breaks out there is little that can stop it.

Since locusts travel on wind currents it’s not uncommon for swarms to cross oceans, jumping from one continent to another.

(China Daily, August 3, 2004)