Locusts loom in Sumba

YOGYAKARTA: Sumba Island in East Nusa Tenggara will probably be hit by a plague of locusts in the next three months, a researcher from the Yogyakarta-based Gajah Mada University said on Wednesday.

The pest, locally known as belalang kembara, destroyed 1,660 hectares of paddy fields in East Nusa Tenggara in June, he said.

"In just one hour, a colony of locusts can eat up to one square hectare of rice fields," said Sudibyakto, chief of Natural Disaster Studies Center.

The attacks are becoming more frequent because of the decline of endemic bird species which prey on the locusts.

"From 108 bird species in Sumba, only eight species of them are left," he said. The local administration and researchers are doing their utmost to solve the problem, he added. (44/edt)