ROME — The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation said Thursday it will help ten countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus to save farmland from a locust crisis threatening food security for 20 million people. "Locusts are a serious threat for agriculture, food security and livelihoods in both regions, including adjacent areas of northern Afghanistan and the southern Russian Federation," the Rome-based FAO said in a statement.

Desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria: male (on top) and female (below) mating.