The financial burden caused by invasive pests and plants in Africa could amount to more than $3.5 billion per year, a study published in CABI Agriculture and Bioscience has revealed. The finding joins the list of existing food security challenges on the African continent, such as climate change, armed conflict and locust pests, reports the New York Times.
“The high cost was surprising to us,” Rene Eschen, a scientist at the Center for Agriculture and Bioscience International, a non-profit research group, and lead author of the project, told the NYT. “Our study demonstrates the urgent need for measures to mitigate the current impacts of invasive alien species and prevent the spread of new alien species across Africa,” he added.
The study was based on 2019 data and is the first, according to the authors, to estimate the economic burden of invasive alien species in Africa. In total, the study estimates that countries lose $3.66 billion annually.
Most of the costs are related to labor, such as removing weeds.
Estimates of loss by country:
Nigeria – About $1 billion per year
Democratic Republic of Congo – $317 billion per year
Niger- $248 billion per year
South Africa – 229 billion dollars per year
Given the paucity of data on invasive species in Africa, researchers have used estimates in some cases. Because of this, some experts question the study’s conclusions.
“A major drawback of this study is the collection of data on the monetary cost of invasive species to mainland Africa and information about them from literature and online surveys,” Ikechukwu Kelikume, professor of economics and agribusiness at Lagos Business School, told the US newspaper. “The implication is that the data collected from the literature may not be a true reflection of the size and intensity,” he explained.
For the study’s author, Rene Eschen, there is a need for governments to be more proactive and to “invest in finding more efficient ways to deal with invasive species.”
