A Conceptual Framework for Economic Evaluation of Desert Locust Management Interventions

The difficulty lies not in new ideas, but in escaping from old ones. Preface The desert locust is an ancient problem. People in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia had to live and cope with it for many centuries. It is only with the development of chemical pesticides that man developed the belief he could solve this problem by adopting a strategy of war against nature. Spraying poisonous pesticides to combat locust swarms became an approach which was highly spectacular. Locust outbreaks quickly made the political action threshold to become surpassed and stimulated governments for intervention. By adopting a strategy of early control national governments often supported by FAO, were able to demonstrate to their people that they are doing something. Consequently, for a long time large sums of money were spent to buy pesticides and offer them as aid to developing countries. It became more and more impossible for decision-makers in development and donor agencies to deny a request for support to fight off locusts. Wouldn't it be unethical to even question the justification for support when being faced with the picture of terrifying locust swarms eating up the hard work of poor farmers in just a matter of hours? Disasters rightly create compassion and sympathy was the main driving force in providing funds for support. Hence asking the question whether locust control campaigns really pay off, for a long time simply was an irrelevant question. Unfortunately sympathy has gradually and steadily developed into subsidy and the distinction between the two has become blurred. With the advancement of a better scientific understanding on the desert locust problem and as the negative effects of chemical pesticides became more widely known the situation began to change. Today, financial support for dessert locust control is a controversial issue in international development circles. It has come to a point where the popular phrase of " more research is needed before we can make further decisions " was no longer enough. For a very long time, data have been collected and modeling exercises were performed. Yet very little could be said on whether the resources spent are justifiable. It is here where the research of Bernd Hardeweg, a young and promising economist of the University of Hannover, on the Economics of Desert Locust Management fills an important gap. His most important contribution is the rigorous attempt to overcome the " language of …