Winning The Battle Against Desert Locusts
Desert locust upsurge could have devastating consequences in vulnerable regions affected by recurrent drought, conflict, high food prices and now fighting COVID-19 pandemic. Outlook Web Bureau May 07, 2021
For the unsuspecting farmer, the Desert Locust is a formidable enemy. These pests have a voracious appetite with the capacity to devour vast swathes of crops and pastureland on the way, multiply rapidly and can travel up to 150 km/day.
According to some reports, it was the first time since the locust plague of 1926-31 that swarms of locusts took the National Capital Region by surprise in June 2020.
A high-tech response is helping countries win battle against Desert Locusts
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FAO and its partners are creating cutting-edge technology to destroy the pests
For the unsuspecting farmer, the Desert Locust is a formidable enemy. These wretched pests have a voracious appetite, multiply rapidly and travel up to 150 kilometers a day with the capacity to devour vast swathes of crops and pastureland on the way.
In the past year, waves of the insidious insect swept across East Africa, Yemen and southwest Asia in massive swarms that contained up to 80 million in a single square kilometre.
The threat to agriculture and food security has been immense and the challenge to bring them under control, urgent.
What you need to know
The UK Meteorological Office will predict weather and climate change using a new supercomputer built by Microsoft.
Once completed, it will be among the top 25 supercomputers in the world.
The supercomputer will be built with £1.2 billion of funding from the UK Government
The UK Meteorological Office (Met Office) will use a supercomputer worth £1.2 billion (roughly $1.7 billion) to forecast the weather and climate change. The computer will be built in partnership with Microsoft with funding announced by the UK Government last year. Once finished, it will be among the top 25 supercomputers in the world and twice as powerful as any in the UK. Microsoft announced the partnership in a recent blog post.
With work on the supercomputer already underway, it s expected to become operational in July 2022.
The liquid-cooled HPE Cray EX supercomputer will be used to create elaborately detailed city-scale simulations, designed to improve the accuracy of localised weather predictions. The data will also be used to improve city design and help reduce risks associated with the rollout of new transport networks.
The deal will see Microsoft provide the Met Office with Azure’s supercomputing as a service platform, including those across its artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance data archive systems.
In order to be able “to make progress with the ecological challenges we face, [this] requires innovation, technology, and partnerships”, according to Microsoft UK CEO Clare Barclay.