(CNN) - El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele has ordered Agriculture Minister Pablo Anliker to create a plan to reduce the possible impact on crops of a locust plague that is forecast to hit the country in the coming days.
"This plague is knocking on our door," said the president on his Twitter account after newspaper reports confirmed the presence of the Central American lobster in the Petén area, Guatemala.
Also through Twitter, Anliker indicated that the Ministry of Agriculture will reinforce a plan that has been implemented since last January against lobster "to prevent them from damaging our crops and that producers are hit economically."
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On July 2, the International Regional Organization for Agricultural Health (OIRSA) issued an alert for the Central American region in which it urges governments to take measures against the plague.
According to a statement from the regional body, lobster can affect some 400 types of plants, mainly "crops of corn, beans, sorghum, soybeans, peanuts, sugar cane, chili, tomato, citrus, banana, coconut, mango and also grasslands ”.
The Ministry of Agriculture of El Salvador has asked farmers to report the presence of the pest as soon as possible in order to take the necessary measures and prevent the growth of insects, as well as their movement to other areas of the country.
In September 2018, El Salvador was affected by an outbreak of locusts, also known as grasshoppers, which devoured several hectares of crops, mainly in the Tecoluca area, department of San Vicente, about 72 kilometers from San Salvador.
El Salvador Lobsters