The Consortium presented in the framework of this project groups together two institutions, one company and five user institutions. The team is highly qualified and includes scientific expertise in Desert locust monitoring, the state-of-art in remote sensing of soil moisture and experience in operational algorithm prototyping and implementation.
Partners
isardSAT is a service firm that provides engineering and scientific research services within the Earth Observation field.
Contact person: Maria José Escorihuela
French research institute Cirad collaborates with developing countries to tackle international agricultural and development issues. Cirad has a team of scientists dealing with locust ecology and management since the 1970’s, which is part of the Center for Biology and Management of Populations (CBGP) in Montpellier, France. CBGP is a joint research unit (INRA/IRD/Cirad/SupAgro) that carries out research in the fields of systematics, genetics and ecology relevant to the management of populations and communities of organisms for the purposes of agriculture, public health and biodiversity.
Contact person: Cyril Piou
CESBIO (Center for the Study of the BIOsphere from space) is a research laboratory located in Toulouse, France, that aims at contributing to the progress in the understanding of the functioning of continental surfaces and their interactions with the climate and man, with an emphasis on the use of remote sensing data.
Contact person: Olivier Merlin
User institutions
UNITED NATIONS. Desert Locust Information Service, hosted at Rome FAO’s headquarters, centralises Desert locust survey information and provides regular monthly bulletins, forecasts and warnings for each concerned country.
DLIS also promotes the use of vegetation and rainfall maps from remote sensing data so that the Anti-locust Centers can decide in which areas to send survey teams.
ALGERIA. The Institut National de la Protection des Végétaux, located in Algiers, is the main actor of Algeria’s phytosanitary watch. Its strategy is based on:
- the control of local farm produces, plants and seeds,
- the supervision and treatment of agricultural plagues farmers have no capacities to oppose,
- the local watch, by bringing farmers preventive information,
- the modernization and the master of crop protection techniques favoring environmental protection.
MALI. Centre National de Lutte contre le Criquet Pèlerin in Bamako is mandated to watch and to fight against the Desert locust on the whole of the national territory. For that purpose, it is mainly in charge of:
- developping, updating regularly and operating projected action plans of prospecting and control,
- designing, executing, coordinating, following and estimating the operations of watch and control,
- leading studies, researches and experiments in acridologie in association with the specialized institutions and experts,
- collecting, analyzing, handling, broadcasting and exchanging informations concerning the situation of the Desert locust at the national, regional and international level…
MAURITANIA. The Centre National de Lutte Antiacridienne, based in Nouakchott, is charged with:
- designing, executing and coordinating watch and control operations against the Desert locust on the whole national territory,
- designing and executing environmental follow-up adapted to locust control,
- designing, executing, following and coordinating researches and studies in acridology,
- collecting, spreading and exchanging locust informations with the national, regional and international specialized institutions.
MOROCCO. The Centre National de Lutte Anti-Acridienne, located in Aït Meloul near Agadir is mainly in charge of:
- following the evolution of the various locust species on the whole national territory,
- inquiring regularly on the evolution of the Desert locust by permanent contacts with the interested authorities,
- developing research programs on the various aspects of locust control,
- providing logistic support in equipments of treatment and pesticides.