[VIDEOS] Locust swarms menace in India/Pakistan

[MenInG]

KARACHI: As the invasion of locusts continued in the city for the last two days, Sindh minister of agriculture Ismail Rahu has advised the citizens to prepare biryani and karahi of these insects.

A video clip shows the Sindh minister suggesting people to take advantage of the locusts and eat them in form of various delicious food dishes.

He said that the locusts have come all the way to the citizens and they should take the advantage of it by preparing delicious dishes and eating them.

Swarms of locusts first entered into the agricultural area of Malir in Karachi, due to which it was being feared that the crops spread on hundreds of acres of land would be ruined.

The locusts also invaded agricultural lands in Memon Goth Malir and damaged crops of vegetable and ate leaves of the plants and trees.

However, Ismail Rahu said that these insects did not damage the crops in Malir.

The locusts have spread in various parts of the city including Malir, Korangi, Bahadurabad, Hasan Square, Nazimabad and other areas where these insects were seen flying in abundance.

The Quaid-e-Azam Trophy match, which was playing between Sindh and Northern at the National Stadium, was also interrupted briefly when a locust swarm showed up.

The swarm was large enough that the players had to stop playing and cover their eyes and ears in a bid to avoid contact with the insects.

The Sindh minister assured that fumigation (insect-killing spray) would be arranged in those areas where they are seen flying.

The minister said that people should not worry as the grasshoppers do not harm them.
https://www.geo.tv/latest/255884-eat-tiddi-briyani-and-karhai-minister

 

[MenInG]

Very scary stuff, I know they are harmless but look extremely dangerous!

 

[ahmedzee]

Get a net folks, and catch as much as possible. Locust is allowed to consumed in Islam. Free food!!!

 

[Abdullah719]

Get a net folks, and catch as much as possible. Locust is allowed to consumed in Islam. Free food!!!

They don't look too appetising to be honest.

 

[WhenSultansBowled]

Get a net folks, and catch as much as possible. Locust is allowed to consumed in Islam. Free food!!!

From Wikipedia:

Locusts are edible insects. Several cultures throughout the world consume insects, and locusts are considered a delicacy and eaten in many African, Middle Eastern, and Asian countries. They have been used as food throughout history.[53]

They can be cooked in many ways, but are often fried, smoked, or dried.[54] The Bible records that John the Baptist ate locusts and wild honey (Greek: ἀκρίδες καὶ μέλι ἄγριον, romanized: akrides kai meli agrion) while living in the wilderness.[55] Attempts have been made to explain the locusts as some ascetic vegetarian food such as carob beans, but the plain meaning of akrides is the insects.[56][57]

The Torah, although disallowing the use of most insects as food, permits the consumption of certain locusts; specifically, the red, the yellow, the spotted grey, and the white are considered permissible.[58][59] In Islamic jurisprudence, eating locusts is considered halal.[60][59] Prophet Muhammad PBUH, was reported to have eaten locusts during a military raid with his companions.[61]

Just learned. I am curious about their taste.

 

[WhenSultansBowled]

Locusts yield about five times more edible protein per unit of fodder than cattle, and produce lower levels of greenhouse gases in the process.[76] The feed conversion rate of orthopterans is 1.7 kg/kg,[77] while for beef it is typically about 10 kg/kg.[78] The protein content in fresh weight is between 13–28 g/100g for adult locust, 14–18 g/100g for larvae, as compared to 19–26 g/100g for beef.[79][80]

More than decent protein source!

 

[Rayyman]

They don't look too appetising to be honest.

Send me some locust karahi bro

 

[MRSN]

More than decent protein source!

I have heard that if they are eaten raw they have 10x extra proteins?

 

[Salman]

Hey something we can finally export to China!

 

[ARK Rafay]

Hey something we can finally export to China!

Not a bad idea

 

[troodon]

I did not know Muslims can eat Bugs.

 

[Lonewarrior]

I did not know Muslims can eat Bugs.

muslims dont need to eat bugs if chicken is thre to eat. its just Halal. doesnt mean we have to eat. also, i am not sure about bugs, becoz wikipedia is not a good source to understand Haram and Halal.

 

[ahmedzee]

They don't look too appetising to be honest.

From Wikipedia:



Just learned. I am curious about their taste.

I tried it in Saudi, a long time ago. It tastes a lot like shrimps, without the fishy taste ofcourse. They're quite crunchy and you can season it with literally anything. It doesn't have an after taste so you wont be disgusted that it is an insect. It is rich in protein and zinc and extremely low in fat. It is considered a healthy protein and there are lots of protein powders and bars based on locust protein.

 

[Abdullah719]

China prepares 100,000 ducks to battle Pakistan's locust swarms

China is preparing to deploy 100,000 ducks to neighbouring Pakistan to help tackle swarms of crop-eating locusts.

Chinese agricultural experts say a single duck can eat more than 200 locusts a day and be more effective than pesticides.

Pakistan declared an emergency earlier this month saying locust numbers were the worst in more than two decades.

Millions of the insects have also been devastating crops in parts of East Africa.

The Chinese government announced this week it was sending a team of experts of Pakistan to develop "targeted programmes" against the locusts.

Lu Lizhi, a senior researcher with the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, described the ducks as "biological weapons". He said that while chickens could eat about 70 locusts in one day a duck could devour more than three times that number.

"Ducks like to stay in a group so they are easier to manage than chickens," he told Chinese media.

A trial involving the ducks will take place in China's western Xinjiang province in the coming months, Mr Lu said, according to Bloomberg news agency.

After that they will be sent to Pakistan's worst-affected areas of Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab provinces.

In 2000, China shipped 30,000 ducks from Zhejiang province to Xinjiang to tackle an infestation of locusts.

According to the UN, the current heavy infestations can be traced back to the cyclone season of 2018-19 that brought heavy rains to the Arabian Peninsula and allowed at least three generations of "unprecedented breeding" that went undetected. Swarms have since spread out into South Asia and East Africa.

In January, the UN called for international help to fight swarms of desert locusts sweeping through East Africa.

Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are all struggling with "unprecedented" and "devastating" swarms of the food-devouring insects, the UN said.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51658145

 

[Mueez]

This doesn’t look good, tbh.

My only fear is if the ducks carry corona... this could turn out disastrous for Pakistan...

 

[sweep_shot]

I have never eaten locust. Would love to try it. Saw some Google images and it looks like shrimp.

Hopefully the locust problem in Karachi will get better.

 

[globalcitizen]

I have never eaten locust. Would love to try it. Saw some Google images and it looks like shrimp.

Hopefully the locust problem in Karachi will get better.

Do you seriously want to do that after coronavirus outbreak? And this locust swarm has travelled from Africa to Asia in such a short time and never know what they carry !!!

 

[Firebat]

Pakistan braced for locust invasion

In a week when Pakistan all but ended its two-month coronavirus lockdown, it seems the country is now facing another threat - locusts.

Khalid Jawed Khan, the country's attorney general, said an attack was imminent during a recent hearing of a coronavirus case headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, the Dawn news website reports.

Khan said a large swarm of locusts would be migrating from Africa to Pakistan in the coming days and could damage crops.

East African countries have been severely affected by a second invasion of locusts in recent weeks.

The UN estimates the swarms could be up to 20 times bigger than during the first invasion - and they could become 400 times bigger by June.

 

[Smbhayi]

Thing about eating these you've fry/cook them alive...

 

[pillionrider]

If true, this is not a benevolent act necessarily, as India is looking out for itself too, but worth sharing ....

India has reached out to Pakistan to counter a locust invasion which threatens to destroy crops and undermine food security in south and southwest Asia — a region where the COVID-19 pandemic has already disrupted farming.

An official source who did not wish to be named said India had proposed a trilateral response in partnership with Pakistan and Iran to combat the desert locust wave sweeping across the Afro-Asian region.

“India has suggested to Pakistan that both countries coordinate locust control operations along the border, and that India can facilitate supply of Malathion, a pesticide, to Pakistan,” the official said.

Desert locusts pose a major threat to food security in the region, including India. A typical locust swarm, which can vary from less than one square kilometre to several hundred square kilometres, can devastate farmlands. A one square kilometre swarm, containing about 40 million locusts, can in a day eat as much food as 35,000 people, assuming that each individual consumes 2.3 kg of food per day, says the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). In India, small swarms of desert locusts, in the past weeks, have already arrived from Pakistan, moving east into Rajasthan, and reaching Jodhpur.

“We are preparing for a worst-case scenario. Starting from the Horn of Africa, and joined by desert locusts from breeding grounds en route, one locust stream can travel over a land corridor passing over Yemen, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and India, impacting farmlands in Punjab, Haryana and the Indo-Gangetic plain. But another stream passing over the Indian Ocean can directly attack farms in peninsular India, and then head towards Bangladesh,” another official had earlier told The Hindu.

The official source said India and Pakistan had a regular mechanism, led by their “Locust Officers,” who hold six annual border meetings, between June and November. This dialogue is held either at Munabao in Rajasthan or Khokhropar on the Pakistani side. Officials of the two neighbours are also in wireless contact with each other during these months from their perches in Jodhpur and Karachi.

India is also offering to energise another mechanism marshalled by the Locust Warning Organisation, to coordinate a robust joint response by New Delhi, Islamabad and Tehran. So far, Iran has welcomed India’s offer of pesticide to control desert locusts in its arid South Khorasan province, and Sistan-Balochistan province that borders Pakistan, the source said.

Analysts spotlight that despite established protocols, it is not clear whether Pakistan will respond positively to India’s proposal, given the downturn in New Delhi-Islamabad ties — evident in their inability to work together on a collective regional response against COVID-19 under the SAARC framework. The source said that it remains to be seen whether Pakistan will come forward with “cooperation on coordinated desert locust control operation with India,” rising above, what he described was Islamabad’s “narrow-minded approach,” as seen during the COVID-19 initiative.

Despite apprehensions, it is clear that Pakistan’s requirement for international support to contain the locust attack is substantial and urgent. An editorial in the Pakistani daily Dawn, exhorted the “international community” to support the FAO’s call “for funds to help Pakistan and Iran in their fight against a new locust invasion.” “Unless this war is won, the locust plague in Pakistan may wipe out more livelihoods than the COVID-19 contagion and worsen food security in the coming months,”it observed

China has, so far, stepped up its counter-locust backing for Pakistan, but Beijing’s support alone is unlikely to meet Islamabad’s mounting needs, observers say, pointing to the window for a trilateral initiative.

Locust officers


SOURCE

 

[Nostalgic]

Can’t we just divert them eastwards, the way we do weather patterns, heatwaves and spy pigeons?

 

[BoomBoomCricket]

MULTAN/RAJANPUR/KANDHKOT: Locusts attacked and severely damaged cotton, mango and other crops in various cities of Sindh and southern Punjab on Monday, giving rise to fears of more damage in the days to come if appropriate steps are not taken to protect crops from the insects.

The locust attack took place in different areas of Multan, Rajanpur, district Muzaffargarh and Kandhkot. Mango, cotton crops and rice saplings were severely damaged by the attack.

In Multan, locusts attacked trees located in parks and at sidewalks at the Qasim Bela, Cantt, Pull Bararan, Old Shujabad road, Chowk Shah Abbas and Vehari Road areas.

In Rajanpur, mango, cotton and other crops were damaged by the locust attack. In Muzaffargarh, locusts attacked crops and mango orchards in Doaaba, Lutkaran, Chak Rohari, Chak Mathan, Lalpur, Sanki and surrounding areas.

With no help from the government, locals in Muzaffargarh attempted to ward off the locusts by beating drums in an attempt to scare them away. To effectively eliminate locusts, farmers have called on the government to spray crops from airplanes instead of spraying only certain areas.

In Kandhkot, locusts destroyed rice saplings, grass and trees. Locals in the city demanded the government conduct aerial spray to ensure the protection of food crops.

Earlier, a report in The News had said that officials were concerned about farmlands in Sindh once again coming under a massive attack of locust swarms from Iran by May 15 which could prove even more harmful for the crops in the province as compared to the locust attack of the last year.

The information was shared by officials of the Plant Protection Department (PPD), who attended a high-level meeting at the Sindh Secretariat last month on the expected locust attack in the province.

The PPD officials had told Chief Secretary Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah that up to 60 countries around the world have been affected by locust swarms.

Members of the meeting were informed that 30 spots have been identified in Sindh where camps would be established for tackling the issue of the impending locust attack. Fifty-seven teams comprising 180 personnel were being created to address the emergency.

It was decided in the meeting that 100,000 litres of pesticide would be sprayed through aerial means while 25,000 litres of pesticide would be used against locust swarms via the boom spray method.

 

[Firebat]

India combats locust attack amid Covid-19 pandemic

An invasion by desert locusts has hit large swathes of India and Pakistan in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

Large and aggressive swarms of these crop-devouring short-horned insects have invaded more than two dozen districts covering more than 50,000 hectares of desert areas of western India. Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat are the worst affected states.

In neighbouring Pakistan, authorities declared a nationwide emergency in February, saying locust numbers were the worst in more than two decades. Local reports say that farmers are fighting the "worst locust plague in nearly three decades" and the swarms were decimating crops and sending prices of food soaring.

Some 38% of Pakistan's area spread over the provinces of Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab are "breeding grounds" for locusts, according to a report by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

Spoiler

Relations between the two hostile nuclear-armed neighbours have been frozen for years. But this hasn't come in the way of India and Pakistan working closely to fight these migratory insects, say officials.

There have been some nine Skype meetings between the two sides since April, which plant-protection officials from Afghanistan and Iran have also joined, a senior Indian official told me.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the two sides would meet physically on the border. They held five border meetings on locust control during 2017-2018.

"We are battling a major locust attack from across the border. This is the biggest invasion in nearly three decades. The swarms are very big and they have migrated from across the border after breeding a month earlier than we were expecting," KL Gurjar, deputy director of India's Locust Warning Organisation, said.

The swarms flew across the border around 30 April, and they are still active in five districts of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Each of these one-square-kilometre swarms contains up to 40 million insects and they travel fast, sometimes up to 400km (248 miles) in a day, officials say.

"We are lucky that there is no crop in the fields now. But the locusts eat up all the green vegetation, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds and plants," Mr Gurjar said. An average small locust swarm, say officials, can eat as much food in a day as about 2,500 people.

The Covid-19 pandemic is posing fresh challenges for some 100 odd workers who are battling the insects, using vehicle-mounted sprayers, pesticides and drones in the searing desert heat.

They are staying in the villages, where they are being given foods by locals, and going out at night to hunt down the insects in face masks and wearing some basic protective clothing. "They have migrated here after breeding across the border. It is a severe attack," Om Prakash, a plant-protection officer, who works in Rajasthan state .

India has suffered from waves of locust invasions over the years: 25 locust plagues and upsurges were recorded between 1964 and 1997. The colonial government set up a locust warning organisation in 1939 in Karachi, now in Pakistan, after a series of locust attacks. India set up a a separate surveillance organisation in 1946.

If not controlled, desert locusts can damage food supplies and cause famine. Some 45 million sq km of land in 90 countries are potentially prone or under the threat of invasion by the desert locust, according to the FAO.

A second wave of a locust attack has also hit East Africa. Africa's second most populous state, Ethiopia - along with regional economic powerhouse Kenya and politically unstable Somalia - are among countries worst hit.

The UN estimates the swarms could be up to 20 times bigger than during the first invasion -and they could become 400 times bigger by June. The World Bank has approved $500m (£409m) in grants and low-interest loans to help countries in East Africa and the Middle East cope with the crop loss after the attacks.

According to the UN, the current infestations can be traced back to the cyclone season of 2018-19 that brought heavy rains to the Arabian Peninsula and allowed at least three generations of "unprecedented breeding" that went undetected. Swarms have since spread out into South Asia and East Africa.

India, clearly, needs to be watchful in the months ahead. "We need to be alert and anticipate where this is going next. The situation is all the more alarming as it comes at a time when the affected states are already reeling under Covid-19 and the ongoing heatwave," says Anshu Sharma of Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society, a non-profit disaster management organisation.

How locust swarms are tackled

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52804981

 

[MenInG]

Huge swarms of desert locusts are destroying crops across western and central India, prompting authorities to step up their response to the country's worst plague in nearly three decades.

Drones, tractors and cars have been sent out to track the voracious pests and spray them with pesticides. The locusts have already destroyed nearly 50,000 hectares (125,000 acres) of cropland.

India has not seen locust swarms on this scale since 1993 the warning centre said.

The insects have caused enormous damage to the seasonal crops in both the states, devastating many farmers already struggling with the impact of a strict coronavirus lockdown.

They destroyed harvests in the agricultural heartlands of neighbouring Pakistan in April, before entering Rajasthan.

Smaller swarms are also active in a handful of states across India, Gurjar said.

A swarm of 40 million locusts can eat as much food as 35,000 people, or six elephants, according to the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Residential areas in Rajasthan state's capital Jaipur were overwhelmed by the insects as bewildered locals banged on pots and pans to try and ward off the insects.

Locusts destroy crops in some parts of Rajasthan close to the border with Pakistan most years, but it is rare for the insects to move further into the state.

Experts warn the situation could worsen with more expected to reach India via Pakistan from the Horn of Africa in June.

Heavy rains and cyclones enabled unprecedented breeding and the rapid growth of locust populations on the Arabian Peninsula early last year, according to the UN.

Locusts destroy crops in some parts of Rajasthan close to the border with Pakistan most years, but it is rare for the insects to move further into the state.

Wind patterns have been pushing the swarms southwest, the locust warning centre said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020...t-locust-attack-27-years-200526160727430.html

 

[MenInG]

A locust swarm is not expected to pass over Delhi and is likely to move towards Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the Locust Warning Organisation (LWO) said on Wednesday.

Reports had suggested the swarm would come towards Delhi on Wednesday, but LWO said the dreaded insects are likely to move from Dausa to Dholpur in Rajasthan and to Morena in Madhya Pradesh, destroying all kinds of vegetation, and not just standing crops.

Small swarms have reached Vidarbha and other parts of Maharashtra, as well as parts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. More swarms are flying in Rajasthan.

“The alert that they are headed towards Delhi on Wednesday is incorrect. They are headed towards Morena for now,” said KL Gurjar, deputy director of the Directorate of Plant Protection Quarantine and Storage and LWO.


LWO has 50 teams currently tracking locust swarms from Rajasthan to Madhya Pradesh. Drones have been launched to track the swarms, and fire fighters have been deployed, depending on the size and location of swarms.

“We have controlled them in 47,000 hectares in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The swarms which reached Maharashtra are very small. Thankfully, we didn’t have any standing crops here in Rajasthan but they can destroy all kinds of vegetation,” said Gurjar.

LWO teams are spraying the pesticides Malathion 96 and Chlorpyrifos, depending on the location.


Gurjar said he was hopeful that all swarms would be destroyed before the insects start breeding during the monsoon. “Before the monsoon, we will control them completely so that there is no second wave,” he said.

LWO had warned in its May 15 bulletin that soil moisture was observed “dry” at Jaisalmer, Barmer, Phalodi, Jodhpur, Nagaur, Bikaner and Palanpur and wet patches were recorded at Suratgarh and Fazilka.

Favourable breeding condition for the desert locust is moist sandy or clay soil. Green vegetation is favourable for development of hoppers. Often favourable conditions may exist in the desert but there are no locusts present. Therefore, the presence of moist soil and green vegetation does not automatically mean that there are locusts around according to LWO.

“As per global situation, some adult groups and swarms [of locusts are] expected to arrive in India from spring breeding areas. Therefore, vigilance will continue towards expected invasion of locusts in coming days,” the warning had said.

Experts said excess rains in the pre-monsoon season over north India may have created conditions for locusts to thrive at a time earlier than normal this year. For example, northwest India received 24% excess rains from March 1 to May 27 (pre-monsoon months) and central India received 109% excess rains during this period. West and east Rajasthan recorded excess rains of 64% and 117% respectively.

Climate scientists and organisations such as the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) have said deadly locust invasions in Africa, Middle East and South Asia are linked to freak weather associated with climate change. WMO said unusually heavy rainfall in late 2019 was a factor in the severe desert locust outbreak in the Horn of Africa region – the worst in more than 25 years, and the most serious in 70 years for Kenya.

This is expected to spread further by June and pose a severe threat to food security.

“Heavy rain triggers the growth of vegetation in arid areas where desert locusts can grow and breed. These locusts which migrated to India early this year might have found greener pastures as the pre-monsoon rains during March-May were in excess over north India this year,” said Roxy Mathew Koll, climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.

KK Singh, senior scientist at India Meteorological Department, said: “It’s not a direct link. We cannot say that because we had excess pre-monsoon rains and greenery in northwest and central India, so locusts have invaded us. There are many other factors.”

Desert locusts can eat as much as their own weight, which is about five to 10 grams, a day. Just one small swarm has the potential to eat the same amount of crops in one day as 35,000 people. If the locusts are not contained, the impact on crops and vegetation will drive up hunger in regions already struggling with high levels of food insecurity.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation has said the current locust upsurge is alarming in Eastern Africa. More than 25 million people will face acute food insecurity in the region in the second half of 2020. In Yemen, where locusts have been reproducing in hard-to-access inland areas, 17 million people may be impacted, it said.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/indi...asses-delhi/story-BrGCONpY39WadMnToMeXUL.html

 

[MenInG]

In a bid to facilitate complaints related to locusts, National Disaster Management Authority(NDMA) has activated a hotline 051-111-222-999 for registering and resolving issues pertaining to their attacks.

"The aggrieved farmers can register their complaints about the existence of locusts in their respective areas or need of spray on the hotline for 24 hours," the NDMA spokesperson said in a statement released on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, locusts attacked and severely damaged cotton, mango and other crops in various cities of Sindh and southern Punjab , giving rise to fears of more damage in the days to come if appropriate steps are not taken to protect crops from the insects.

The locust attack took place in different areas of Multan, Rajanpur, district Muzaffargarh and Kandhkot. Mango, cotton crops and rice saplings were severely damaged by the attack.

In this regard, Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah had also, earlier this month, warned Prime Minister Imran Khan that a "massive" locust attack could be expected after May 15 on the agricultural fields of the province.

In a letter to the premier, the chief minister said that he feared crops could be damaged if the fields weren't sprayed in the coming days.

Sindh government had requested the Centre for assistance in this regard six months ago, unfortunately despite assurances, no co-operation had been received, he said.

‘Massive operation underway’
Yesterday, Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal, in a media briefing, shared details of the steps taken to fight the locust attacks.

The NDMA chief had said that a massive operation is underway in Multan, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, and Faisalabad divisions, along with Okara, Bhakar, and Layyah districts.

“We have enough stock of pesticides in Pakistan to keep the locust attacks in check,” Afzal had said.

“China has provided 100,000 litres of Malathion, and 75,000 litres Lambda, while 50,000 more litres of the latter will come from Japan.”

In addition, he had said that the NDMA has ordered 100,000 litres each of these pesticides to undertake anti-locust spraying.

Also read: Locusts deal severe damage to mango, cotton and other crops in Sindh, southern Punjab

“The disaster management authority has also arranged nine planes for aerial spray in different parts of the country, including Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” Afzal had said.

He had said locusts can enter Pakistan from Iran and Muscat in the first and second weeks of the next month and the NDMA has deployed aeroplanes with sufficient spray equipment and pesticides in DG Khan, Dera Ismail Khan and along the Iran border to kill the insect then and there.

He said arrangements have also been made for anti-locust spraying in deserts of Thar and Cholistan.

Source GEO

 

[MenInG]

KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has alleged that the federal government is responsible for the recent locust attacks that have dealt a blow to local farmers, blaming PM Imran and the cabinet for failing to take adequate and required steps in Sindh and other provinces, reported The News.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the PPP chairman said he had repeatedly warned the federal government of the threat of locust attacks to the economy but the Centre took no measures, after which the country’s agriculture had come under the severe locust onslaught, which might cause a dangerous blow to the national economy that had already been reeling due to the coronavirus emergency.

Bilawal said the failure of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led federal government to protect the growers and crops from the locust attacks despite having chances to take advance efforts was unpardonable criminal negligence and Prime Minister Imran Khan and his entire cabinet must be held responsible for the situation.

The PPP chairman added that time and again he and his party leaders were raising the issue and stressing the implementation of the National Action Plan decided by the federal and provincial governments to ward off the locust threat.

He said the required number of planes was not hired to control the swarms heading towards the meadows from borders as it was the duty of the plant protection department of the federal government to take measures for destroying locusts at the entry points. “Now, the reports about the attacks of locusts in Khairpur, Sukkur, Sanghar, Nawabshah, and several other parts of Sindh as well as in other provinces are pouring in. Standing crops and matured fruits are being destroyed by locusts while the poor growers are looking at the ravages helplessly,” he said.

Bilawal appreciated the Sindh government for taking steps on its own, including hiring planes for aerial spray against the locusts, though it was the responsibility of the federal government to conduct sprays and provide the required chemicals to the provinces for sprays on the grounds.

https://www.geo.tv/latest/290168-bi...-failing-to-take-steps-against-locust-attacks

 

[MenInG]

Swarms of locusts continued to wreak havoc on food crops across Pakistan, with the attacks gaining frequency in several districts of Sindh, Punjab, and Balochistan.

Locusts attacked crops in Multan, Muzzaffargarh, Vehari, Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur in Punjab and Sanghar, Matiari, and Ghotki in Sindh.

The attacks added to the misery of farmers, who tried to beat drums in order to scare away the attacking insects.

The swarms have been devouring mango, cotton, and sugarcane crops, causing severe damage to the agricultural sector.

Locusts invaded shops and bazaars as well, which led to citizens panicking and spraying in hopes of dispersing the insects leading the onslaught.

In Rajanpur, locusts caused significant damage to green trees and plants. In Sadiqabad, the insects attacked mango farms, wreaking havoc on the production of the fruit.

The district administration in Rahim Yar Khan also resorted to sprays to get rid of locusts attacking the crops.

NDMA hotline
In a bid to facilitate complaints related to locusts, National Disaster Management Authority(NDMA) has activated a hotline 051-111-222-999 for registering and resolving issues pertaining to their attacks.

"The aggrieved farmers can register their complaints about the existence of locusts in their respective areas or need of spray on the hotline for 24 hours," the NDMA spokesperson said in a statement released on Wednesday.

Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal, in a recent media briefing, shared details of the steps taken to fight the locust attacks.

The NDMA chief had said that a massive operation is underway in Multan, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, and Faisalabad divisions, along with Okara, Bhakar, and Layyah districts.

“We have enough stock of pesticides in Pakistan to keep the locust attacks in check,” Afzal had said.

'Failure of federal govt'
A day earlier, Bilawal Bhutto said that the federal government has failed to take adequate and required steps to check the imminent attack of locust swarms in Sindh and other provinces as clouds of locusts have landed in different parts of the country and are destroying crops.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the PPP chairman said he had repeatedly warned the federal government of the threat of locust attacks to the economy but the Centre took no measures, after which the country’s agriculture had come under the severe locust onslaught, which might cause a dangerous blow to the national economy that had already been reeling due to the coronavirus emergency.

https://www.geo.tv/latest/290221-locust-attacks-continue-to-ravage-crops-in-parts-of-pakistan

 

[MenInG]

The National Disaster Management Authority’s spokesman informed on Friday that 61 districts across the country are under attack from locusts, which have been damaging food crops.

Providing a breakdown of the districts, the NDMA spokesman said that the most attacks were reported in Balochistan, where 31 districts witnessed crop damage from locusts.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 11 districts faced locust attacks while 12 districts of Punjab were also attacked by the insects.

The NDMA spokesman said that crops in seven districts of Sindh were also damaged.

The NDMA spokesman said that the survey and operations in locust-hit areas are underway, adding that 1,150 locust-control teams are a part of the operation.

The authority further said that in the past 24 hours, around 313,000 hectares of land were surveyed for the evaluation of damage.

The spokesman apprised that 4,400 hectares were treated across Pakistan, while in Balochistan 1,700 hectares of land were sprayed with insecticides.

In Punjab, 1,000 hectares of land were sprayed while in KP, 900 hectares of land were treated.

In Sindh, 800 hectares of land were treated, added the NDMA spokesman.

Swarms of locusts have been wreaking havoc on food crops across Pakistan recently, with the attacks gaining frequency in several districts of Sindh, Punjab, and Balochistan.

Locusts attacked crops in Multan, Muzzaffargarh, Vehari, Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur in Punjab and Sanghar, Matiari, and Ghotki in Sindh.

The swarms have been devouring mango, cotton, and sugarcane crops, causing severe damage to the agricultural sector.

In a bid to facilitate complaints related to locusts, NDMA has activated a hotline 051-111-222-999 for registering and resolving issues pertaining to their attacks.

"The aggrieved farmers can register their complaints about the existence of locusts in their respective areas or need of spray on the hotline for 24 hours," the NDMA spokesperson had said in a statement released this week.

https://www.geo.tv/latest/290379-61-districts-across-pakistan-under-attack-from-locusts-ndma

 

[Abdullah719]

Pakistan turns locust threat into chicken feed

Spoiler

As the biggest locust swarms for more than 25 years threaten India and Pakistan’s breadbasket regions, a pilot project in Pakistan offers a way to cull the crop-destroying pests without using insecticides that harm people and the environment.

Huge swarms darkened the sky in Jaipur in recent days; one resident of Rajasthan’s biggest city said it was like being “overtaken by aliens,” the New York Times reported. However, the biggest threat is to farmers and poor rural communities already hit hard economically by Covid-19.

Pakistan’s eastern provinces were first overwhelmed in the winter. Fresh swarms are just beginning to take to air and are expected to grow until mid-summer. Pakistan’s government approved a National Action Plan for locust control in February and airborne spraying of some 300,000 litres of insecticide is taking place.

Climate change has played a role in the locust plague. It started after exceptional cyclonic rainfall moistened the “Empty Quarter” deserts of Saudi Arabia in 2019. Biblical quantities of locusts hatched and have been breeding ever since. The swarms were swept eastwards through Iran to Pakistan by seasonal winds. After breeding in Pakistan’s eastern deserts, the locusts took to the air again in late winter. Now, another generation has hatched, and crossed into India.

Imminent danger

“Towards the end of May and in June and July, high level migration is expected,” warns Tariq Khan, director of the Technical Department of Plant Protection in Pakistan’s Sindh province.

Farmer Ghulam Sarwar Panhwar saw millions of the pests devour his cotton and moringa crops in just a few hours. “This was their second attack this month. With locusts attacking our crops during the day, bats attacking our mango orchards at night and coronavirus attacking us in our homes day and night, where do we go?” asks Panhwar, who owns two farms totalling 300 acres in the Hyderabad district of Sindh.

The pesticides used by the government are carcinogenic to humans and poisonous to wildlife, warns Sohail Ahmed, an animal biologist at the University of Agriculture in Peshawar. “No bio safe pesticide is being used at the moment. These chemical sprays are toxic for the environment and will affect humans, wildlife and livestock.”

Farmers in Sindh, Balochistan and parts of Punjab near Pakistan’s desert regions have already noticed changes. “Already the parrots have died out due to the pesticides used in fruit orchards. I’ve noticed that the crows that used to eat the locusts have stopped coming,” says Panhwar, who fears the impact on the water supply, soil and crops.

Simple solution

With the locust problem escalating, an innovative pilot project in Pakistan’s Okara district offers a sustainable solution in which farmers earn money by trapping locusts that are turned into high-protein chicken feed by animal feed mills.

It was the brainchild of Muhammad Khurshid, a civil servant in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research, and Johar Ali, a biotechnologist from the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council.

“We were mocked for doing this – no one thought that people could actually catch locusts and sell them,” says Ali.

Khurshid says they were inspired by an example in Yemen in May 2019. The motto in that war-torn country facing famine was, “Eat the locusts before they eat the crop.”

They selected Okara district, as it is a heavily populated rural area of Pakistan’s Punjab. They set up a three-day trial project in the Pepli Pahar Forest in Depalpur, where huge swarms of adult locusts were reported in mid-February 2020. The forest area was chosen as it was less likely to be contaminated by insecticide.

Popular idea

Using the slogan, “Catch locusts. Earn money. Save crops”, the project offered to pay farmers 20 Pakistani rupees (USD 0.12) per kilogram of locusts.

Locusts only fly in daylight. At night, they cluster on trees and open ground without dense vegetation and remain almost motionless till sunrise the next day. Locusts are easy to catch at night, Khurshid says.

The community’s locust haul averaged seven tonnes a night. The project team weighed the locusts and sold them to nearby plants making chicken feed. Farmers netted up to 20,000 Pakistani rupees (USD 125) per person for one night’s work.

“On the first day in the field we had to send word out and around 10-15 people showed up,” says Ali. But word of the money to be made spread quickly, and hundreds of people showed up by the third day. “We did not even have to provide them with bags, they brought their own on their motorbikes. All we did was to weigh the bags and check that they were indeed full of locusts, and then pay them for their efforts.”

Spoiler

High protein

Muhammad Athar, the general manager Hi-Tech Feeds (within the Hi-Tech Group, one of Pakistan’s biggest poultry breeders and animal feed makers), says his firm fed the bug-based feed to its broiler chickens in a five-week study. “All nutritional aspects came out positive – there was no issue with the feed made from these locusts. If we can capture the locusts without spraying on them, their biological value is high and they have good potential for use in fish, poultry and even dairy feed,” he says.

There are an estimated 1.5 billion chickens being raised in Pakistan plus innumerable fish farms – all of which could potentially buy high protein locust meal.

“We currently import 300,000 tonnes of soya bean and after extracting the oil for sale, we use the soya bean crush to use in animal feed. Soya bean has 45% protein whereas locusts have 70% protein. Soya bean meal is 90 Pakistani rupees per kilogram (USD 0.5), whereas locusts are free – the only cost is capturing them and drying them so they can be sold as useable product,” says Athar.

Commercial interest

The processing cost of drying and milling locusts is only 30 Pakistani rupees per kg (USD 0.19). As Pakistan imports soya beans, he sees substantial potential savings in foreign exchange costs too.

Right after the pilot study, the coronavirus pandemic forced Khurshid and Ali to put any further moves to scale up the project on hold, despite interest from large-scale commercial operators.

Now that the lockdown has been eased in Pakistan, Ali says they can start again. All that is needed is for the local community to collect the locusts and sell them. “There are so many jobless people because of the pandemic. They can all be put to work collecting the locusts and selling them,” he says. Furthermore, rice-milling firms now have spare summer capacity, as rice is usually milled in winter.

“It’s an out-of-box solution – it could easily be scaled up in our populated rural areas. Yes, in our desert areas where locusts breed chemical sprays make sense but not in areas where we have farms with crops and livestock and people,” says Ali.

“It’s a very good idea – the only missing part is the buy-back mechanism,” says Khan, who heads Sindh’s Technical Department of Plant Protection. “Who will pay the local community for the locusts they collect? The animal feed industry needs to get involved.”

Urgent problem

Khan cautions that while harvesting locusts suits populated farming areas, “In large desert areas we have to rely on chemical sprays.” He expects the swarms to carry on multiplying till November, and believes an integrated approach is necessary.

“Since 1993 when the last large swarms of locusts arrived in Pakistan, the country has largely seen a dry spell. Locusts need soil moisture in the desert to thrive,” he says.

Since arriving from Yemen, the locusts have bred for three generations without a pause. They flew across to Balochistan in 2019 and started breeding there. They entered Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the last winter/spring breeding season. According to Khan, the second breeding season that will last from May to November has started.

Pakistan’s official locust action plan funded the National Disaster Management Authority to procure insecticide and aircraft. “This is a coordinated effort involving the NDMA, the Ministry of Food Security and provincial agricultural departments and the provincial disaster management authorities. We have been spraying extensively in the desert areas in the locust breeding areas. You can’t eradicate locusts but you can control them,” he says.

Khurshid said that as massive locust swarms are expected from the end of May, the local communities should be encouraged to catch locusts through buyback guarantees as soon as possible. The government, he pointed out, should both support and encourage private poultry and animal meal enterprises to buy the locusts and should stop spraying in areas where community-based locust collection is possible.

Ahmed advocates a strategy of mass netting. “Nets, which can be as high as 50 feet stretched across poles in the ground, are a one-time cost and they can keep catching the locusts as they come in multiple swarms,” he says.

Large scale development of indigenous natural pesticides like neem tree oil could also play a role as locusts will not touch plants sprayed with it, says Helga Ahmed, a veteran environmentalist based in Islamabad.

Useful lessons

Pakistan’s example may be useful for India. There is usually some locust activity in western Rajasthan and Gujarat most years. But this year the spread has extended to eastern Rajasthan, and locust swarms have been seen in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. An unusually wet late winter season has laid the pathway for the locusts to spread, though a heatwave in central India may provide some relief.

https://www.thethirdpole.net/2020/05/28/huge-swarms-of-locusts-could-be-fed-to-chickens/

 

[MenInG]

NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD: India and Pakistan are not just struggling to cope with a rise in the coronavirus cases. The two neighbours are currently trying to ward off the worst locust attack they have seen for the past three decades, reported foreign media.

In Pakistan, the desert locusts have reportedly entered from Iran, and have already devoured considerable quantities of crops in over 60 districts in all provinces, including Balochistan in the southwest.

As per local media reports, Pakistan is intensifying efforts to combat the plague with pest control systems which include spray aircraft. Among Indian states affected by the desert locusts — one of about a dozen species of short-horned grasshoppers — are northwestern Rajasthan, northern Punjab, western Gujarat and central Madhya Pradesh. Several other states, as well as the territory that includes the national capital, have also sounded alarm over a potential attack in their regions.

In India's worst-hit areas, people have also resorted to tactics such as banging utensils and playing loud music to scare away the pests. Locusts are an omnivorous and migratory insect that can fly hundreds of kilometers in swarms and easily cross national boundaries.

Apart from Africa and Asia, they are also found in the Middle East and inhabits some 60 countries. A swarm one sq. kilometer in size contains about 40 million locusts, which eat the same amount of food in one day as about 35,000 people, according to the FAO.

https://www.geo.tv/latest/291021-ba...akistan-face-worst-locust-attack-in-3-decades

 

[MenInG]

ISLAMABAD: Despite high running tensions between Pakistan and India over held Kashmir, the Foreign Office on Thursday said the two were cooperating with each other to fight desert locust invasion under a forum administered by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Pakistan is part of FAO’s Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in South-West Asia (SWAC), which is one of the oldest of the three regional commissions within the global locust early warning and prevention system. Other members of the regional commission include India, Iran and Afghanistan.

FO spokesperson Aisha Farooqui, at the weekly media briefing, said the ministerial meeting of the commission held in March had decided to reactivate communication between the member states on the locust situation and a Technical and Operational Coordination (ToC) team was formed to exchange information; enhance coordination at the border areas; and increase synchronisation to combat desert locust outbreak in the region.

She said Pakistan had been participating in SWAC meetings on a weekly basis. She described the cooperation as “fruitful” in exchanging information in the bordering areas of Pakistan and India. “We believe that the respective Technical Teams have been coordinating appropriately through FAO,” she further said.

Pakistan and India are facing worst locust attack in nearly three decades and it is feared that crops worth billions of rupees would be lost. This has led to fears about food security in the two countries. According to FAO, early migration of locusts from Pakistan to India started last month. The situation is expected to aggravate further this month when swarms are expected to arrive from Iran and Horn of Africa.

The insects have, moreover, for the first time entered areas in the two countries that remained unaffected in previous invasions.

Ms Farooqui said Pakistan “remains committed to cooperating with all SWAC member states, including India, in combating Desert Locust outbreak”.

Cooperation against locust is a rare instance of the two arch rival neighbours working together since India illegally annexed Occupied Kashmir last August setting off new phase of tensions in ties between the two countries.

Internally in Pakistan, the fight against locust is being spearheaded by Pakistan Army. Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Bajwa on Thursday presided over a session held to review the efforts for countering locust threat.

India on Sunday expelled two Pakistani high commission official on the allegations of espionage. They were accused of collecting data on movement of Indian troops and military cargo through railways. Delhi has, moreover, regularly accused Pakistan of cross-LoC infiltration. Ceasefire violations by Indian troops at the LoC are also on a high this year.

“The two officials of the Pakistan High Commission in India were abducted by the Indian authorities on false and unsubstantiated charges. … in clear violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations as well as norms of diplomatic conduct,” Ms Farooqui said.

She further said: “Violations of diplomatic norms and India’s continued belligerent attitude is a threat to regional peace and security. India continues its deplorable and jingoistic behavior through unprovoked firing along the LOC and the WB.”

The spokesperson, however, noted that Pakistan does not want to escalate the situation and has acted with restraint.

Ms Farooqui rejected Indian statement on defacement of a Buddhist carving in Chilas (Gilgit-Baltistan) as preposterous.

“Pakistan completely rejects baseless Indian contentions regarding Buddhist cultural heritage in Gilgit Baltistan. The Indian allegations are contrary to historical facts, international law and the relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions,” she said.

“The Indian government’s contentions concerning the Buddhist cultural heritage in Gilgit-Baltistan are preposterous. These are part of Indian leadership’s unrelenting anti-Pakistan propaganda,” she asserted. Pointing to maltreatment of minorities in India and rights abuses in Occupied Kashmir, the spokesperson said the RSS-BJP government in Delhi “has no credentials whatsoever even to feign concern for minorities, either at home or elsewhere”.

She also rejected India’s “malicious allegation” relating to the Eleventh Report of the United Nations Analytical and Sanctions Monitoring Team (MT), saying it was aimed at misleading the international community.

She said the spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has misrepresented the Eleventh Report of MT concerning the Taliban and other associated individuals and entities constituting the threat to peace, stability and security of Afghanistan, to slander Pakistan.

Ms Farooqui said there was no reference to “safe havens” in Pakistan in the Monitoring Team (MT) report.

 

[Firebat]

In a bid to counter the locust attack across the country, the Pakistan establishment has come up with a unique approach. The government has announced a bounty for the locusts. Those who catch the locusts and hand them over to the government will be paid Rs 15/kg. The government plans to use these locusts as food for poultry.

 

[Abdullah719]

Emergency locust project to be set up with World Bank assistance

ISLAMABAD: The federal government is gearing up to launch a World Bank-funded locust emergency and food security project in the country amid claims by a federal minister that the catastrophic impact of locust attacks on crops has been minimised with the help of local authorities.

The $200 million project, the first federal agricultural project to be fi**n*a*nced by the WB, had been submitted for approval by the Central Dev*elo*p*ment Working Party (CDWP) of the Plan**ning Commission for its upcoming meeting, according to a press release.

The Locust Emergency and Food Security (LEAFS) project would carry out its activities in 18 districts: nine in Balochistan, four in Punjab, four in Sindh and one in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Meanwhile, Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam claimed that the impact of desert locusts on the country’s agriculture had been minimised to some extent, and by and large the situation was under control.

Spoiler

Minister claims situation is under control

The joint efforts of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research, National Locust Control Centre (NLCC), National Disaster Manage*ment Authority (NDMA), PDMA, provincial governments, Pakistan Army, Suparco, PMD and the survey group under the engineering-in-chief of the Pakistan Army had helped stabilise the situation to a great extent in majority of the affected areas, he added.

Faulty aircraft
According to the minister, 20 dedicated aircraft would be used in the operation to control desert locusts. The government was buying six aircraft, while the remaining would be hired on lease.

He stated that the Depart*ment of Plant Protection had a well-established fleet of 20 aircraft before devolution but 16 of those machines had become dysfunctional and one out of the four remaining had crashed in February this year in which a pilot and an engineer lost their lives. Two pilots had been engaged and their training had been completed, he added according to a statement released to the press.

The WB-funded project’s objectives would include controlling locust outbreak, mitigating negative social and economic impact associated with it and strengthening the national food security system.

The Ministry of National Food Sec*u**rity and Research would be responsible for the project’s implementation along with provincial governments, the Department of Plant Protection, NLCC and NDMA.

The ministry would take up the role for overall coordination of project implementation through establishing a federal project steering committee, resp*onsible for approval of annual work plans, monitoring and review of financial reporting, third party validation if needed, mid-course corrections in the project and re-allocation of funds.

A component of the project relates to the livelihood protection and rehabilitation to provide a robust protection scheme that ensures immediate relief to affected farmers and livestock owners.

An early warning preparedness and food security would be ensured to strengthen national capacity for early warning and early response, linking these efforts to regional and provincial existing locust surveillance and control networks.

A project management unit would be established to ensure monitoring and evaluation to ensure project implementation.

The primary beneficiaries of the project would be farmers and agricultural labourers living in areas prone to desert locust infestation.

For these groups, the proposed project would prevent locust infestations from damaging their livelihoods and provide compensatory income support opportunities for the affected farmers and labourers.

https://dawn.com/news/3000967/emergency-locust-project-to-be-set-up-with-world-bank-assistance

 

[MenInG]

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday vowed that the government will undertake every possible effort for locust control since the country's food security is at stake.

While speaking at a briefing on National Action Plan for Locust Control at National Locust Control Centre in Islamabad, the premier accorded in-principle approval for Phase-II of the National Action Plan for Locust Control. It was also decided that the affected farmers would be compensated through the package.

The prime minister highly appreciated the timely and coordinated response of federal and provincial governments, including the Pakistan Army, for effectively controlling locust attacks and the use of indigenously developed equipment in this regard.

Emphasising that a coordinated national response of federal and provincial governments and organisations is required to cope with another expected locust swarm so that crop production is not affected, the prime minister said that the locust attack combined with the COVID-19 outbreak was a huge challenge for Pakistan.

During the meeting, the prime minister was also informed that the National Action Plan for Locust Control Phase-I has been completed.

Next few weeks crucial
According to a news report published on Dawn.com, officials have warned that the coming few weeks could be crucial in the fight against the desert locust infestation with major swarms expected to be reaching here later this month from the Horn of Africa.

While briefing the diplomatic corps at the National Locust Control Centre (NLCC) earlier on Thursday, Chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority Lt Gen Mohammad Afzal said the locust problem is likely to peak in the next three to four weeks. “The next eight weeks between July 15 and September 15 would be critical because of the monsoon and the government’s ongoing commitment with anti-COVID-19 measures.”

'July will bring with it a new threat'
Last month, Minister for National Food Security Syed Fakhar Imam had said that July will bring with it a new threat of locust swarms, with more of the pests entering Pakistan from Africa, Iran, Oman, Afghanistan, and India.

He had said locusts have now taken a new route to enter Dera Ismail Khan and Waziristan through Afghanistan.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the minister had said that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has ordered 11 planes to carry out anti-locust spraying, whereas five helicopters of Pakistan Army are also being used in this regard.

"The locust attacks have affected various parts of the country and an anti-locust attack survey should be conducted to tackle the problem," he added.

He had said that the ministry is also recruiting 100 entomologists in order to find effective and practical solutions to the locust problem.

Imam had said that China has played an integral role in assisting Pakistan to combat the locust attacks and that the ministry is also in touch with other international organisations.

"[In this regard] the UK and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has provided 20-micron sprays to combat locusts," the minister had said.

https://www.geo.tv/latest/297297-govt-to-undertake-every-possible-effort-for-locust-control-pm

 

[Abdullah719]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are Locust free. However, Locust is present in one district of Balochistan and one district of Sindh. Anti locust survey and control operations are in progress. <a href="https://t.co/RkxJWnXWuU">pic.twitter.com/RkxJWnXWuU</a></p>— Govt of Pakistan (@pid_gov) <a href="https://twitter.com/pid_gov/status/1295356996376502272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 17, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[MenInG]

Pakistani officials have claimed the country has eradicated swarms of desert locust, months after declaring a national emergency to battle the infestation.

“By the grace of God and efforts of all, we can declare today there is no locust in Pakistan,” said Lieutenant General Moazzam Ejaz, head of the National Locust Control Centre.

“The swarm started declining from August and we cleared last few hectares of land in two districts this week,” Ejaz said at a ceremony in the capital Islamabad.

Pakistan deployed drones, helicopters, hundreds of vehicles and thousands of agriculture workers since declaring an emergency in February.

Locust swarms first entered Pakistan in June 2019 from neighbouring Iran and quickly devastated large areas of agricultural land across southwestern districts, ravaging cotton, wheat, maize and other crops.

The damage prompted Pakistan, a country of 220 million people, to miss its production target for wheat by about 2 million tonnes, forcing the government to import the grain for the first time in almost 10 years.

The low yields have pushed up the price of wheat and other foodgrains, pushing overall inflation to almost 10 percent in September piling political pressure on the government.

Despite the government’s claims, officials did not rule out the possibility of another attack by the insects.

“There can be a [resurgence] but based on our experience we will be ready to pre-empt that,” said Mohamed Afzal, head of Pakistan’s disaster management agency.

China, Pakistan’s close ally and neighbour, had donated drones, thousands of tonnes of pesticides and technical expertise to help the country tackle the crisis.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020...evastating-locust-swarm-brought-under-control