A ceremony was held at the Mauritanian National Desert Locust Center (Centre National de Lutte Antiacridienne; CNLA) in Mauritania to celebrate the awarding of the 2020 Chinguitt Prize (Science and Technology) to Dr. MAENO Kotaro, Senior Researcher at the Crop, Livestock and Environment Division.

The Chinguitt Prize is awarded annually by the Mauritanian government to recognize Mauritanian and foreign researchers with outstanding contribution to the promotion and advancement of culture, art and science.

Dr. Maeno has been working on the development of control technology for desert locust outbreaks in Africa for nine years and has been based in Mauritania where he scientifically challenged to solve the desert locust problem. At the recommendation of Dr. Mohamed Abdellahi Ould Babah EBBE, the former CNLA Director, the award was given to Dr. Maeno for his research on spatiotemporal distribution of desert locust in Mauritania to improve preventive management.  His research activities, which have been conducted in cooperation with the Center, were highly evaluated in Mauritania.

At the time the award was announced in 2020, the ceremony was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This time, the current CNLA Director, Mr. Mohamed El Hacen Jaavar organized the ceremony in honor of Dr. Maeno. The ceremony took place under the supervision of Mr. Mohamed, Technical Advisor to the Minister of Agriculture.