Fight Locusts with Milk, Soothsayers Say

DAKAR (Reuters) - Senegal's farmers must give boiled cereal mixed with curdled milk to the poor and bury blessed plant roots in the ground to avoid their crops being ravaged by locusts, traditional clairvoyants say.
The soothsayers held a prediction ceremony in central Senegal to discuss the battle against West Africa's worst locust swarms in 15 years, which are threatening food supplies in an arid region whose people are mostly subsistence farmers.

"We will do all we can on the traditional side to stop the locusts arriving on our territory," Khane Diagne, a local official who attended the ceremony, was quoted as saying in Senegal's main daily newspaper Le Soleil Friday.

Many rural communities in Senegal see such ceremonies as an important predictor of rainfall and harvests.

In neighboring Mali, radio stations have been encouraging people to take up physical battle against the insects by burning, drowning or stamping on them. Some say the abandonment of traditional rites has brought the plague upon them.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Thursday $100 million was needed to control the infestation, but said the international community had so far earmarked just $32 million in aid.

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