Kazakstan
For example, locusts are
beginning to teem over the fields of southern Kazakstan. Reuters
reports that record numbers of the flying insects are expected to
swarm the region – undoubtedly damaging Kazakstan’s already
beleaguered agricultural sector. Weaker Kazak grain exports will
not only worsen Russia’s already precarious food situation.
Kazak agriculture – perennially crippled by budget shortages and
general economic decline – was hardly doing well before the
locusts began spawning. Kazak grain production plummeted from its
Soviet era peak of 25 million tons to 14.2 million tons in 1999.
Lack of funds has left much of Kazakstan’s arable land fallow
and unattended – a prime breeding ground for locusts.
Last year the locust swarms
carpeted over 22 million acres of Kazakstan and began moving onto
about 9 million acres of cultivated land. They also dipped south
into Uzbekistan and north into Russia, infesting areas that had
not been plagued by locusts since the 1920s. Losses amounted to 5
million tons of grain – over a quarter of Kazakstan’s expected
harvest, and complicated Russia’s already precarious grain
supply. Last year, Russia imported nearly 3 million tons of grain
from Kazakstan.
Yet this year the potential for
crop damage is far worse. Last year’s locust swarms laid eggs
across a swath of land about the size of Bulgaria. Kazakstan is
only able to afford $18 million for pesticides for the entire year
less than half the amount needed. It will likely suffer an even
greater crop loss this year.
The Caucasus
The same pattern is evident in
the Caucasus. Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia are all in political
and economic decline. They are heavily in debt, most face an
energy crisis, and dealing with serious and pervasive internal
threats to their national security. Azerbaijan is not only is
fighting with Armenia over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh district,
but thousands of protestors have filled the streets in recent
weeks, calling for a revolution. Georgia’s security is
threatened by conflicts with breakaway regions like South Ossetia
and Abkhazia. The whole region is disrupted by the war in Chechnya
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