Climate change is driving invasive pests into more destructive paths.
In an early simulation study of future risks driven by climate change, an increased risk of rice blast disease, caused by the fungus Magnaporthe grisea, is predicted for cool, subtropical rice-growing regions such as Japan.
In the humid, warm tropics, such as in the Philippines, rice blast risk was predicted to decrease in the future.
It is different in the case of the fall armyworm, a moth that has spread to the Philippines.
It inflicts severe damage to corn and sorghum along with other crops such as rice, cotton and soybean.
It is native to tropical and subtropical areas of the Americas and during summer it migrates into southern and northern temperate American regions.
The pest was first reported in western Africa in 2016 and then throughout sub-Saharan Africa and Egypt in 2019. It has been reported in India, rapidly spreading all over southern and eastern Asia including China, South Korea, Japan and Pakistan, Yemen, Israel and across Australia.
Seasonal migrations can reach Canada from the southern United States.
Some warm areas in Spain, Italy and Greece could provide suitable climatic conditions for the species, mainly from populations established in North Africa.
In recent years, desert locust is found mainly in Africa, through Arabia and western Asia, parts of southern Asia and occasionally in southwest Europe. It swarms and voraciously feeds on key crops such as maize and sorghum, pastures and any green vegetation that comes its way.
Due to unusually heavy rainfall in the Horn of Africa in 2019-2020, unprecedented breeding of the desert locust was observed in Eritrea, Somalia and Yemen.
Climatic changes such as increases in temperature and rainfall over desert areas, and the strong winds associated with tropical cyclones, provide a new favorable environment for pest breeding, development and migration. – Paul Icamina
