A USAID consultant, part of the ground team observation unit, receives the latest report on local wind conditions and grasshopper sightings from a ground observer. - - Grasshopper Control Campaign in the Sahel. The 1985 rains, breaking the worst drought in a decade in the Sahel, also caused an outbreak of the Senegalese grasshopper (Oedaleus) threatening thousands of hectares of food crops. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO launched an international appeal for a Pan Sahelian Campaign and established the Emergency Centre for Locust Operations at FAO Headquarters to coordinate a massive spraying operation in 13 African countries that treated 1.6 million hectares and involved at least 15 donor countries, 36 aircraft, over 500 tonnes of pesticides, many ground team personnel and African farmers. In Western Mali, the most seriously affected area, spraying helped control the expected catastrophic food losses in a campaign by the government and international organizations, including FAO. Activities provided pesticides to the farmers and aimed to destroy future populations, which could otherwise severely damage ripening crops.