Staff Reporter
Lahore
As all-weather strategic cooperative partners, China and Pakistan are using all the technology tools at their disposal to strengthen cooperation to win the war against desert locusts while dealing with challenges from the novel coronavirus. Both the countries have made a lot of progress in agricultural cooperation, with bilateral work to control locusts one of the most notable examples, Gu Wenliang, agricultural commissioner said in an interview, says a message received here from Beijing.
He told Global Times that a virtual salon on joint efforts to control locusts, part of the hotline campaign for China-Pakistan Economic and Trade was facilitated on May 20, right before the 69th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The cloud salon attracted almost 170 delegates to discuss cooperation between China and Pakistan in locust control. The delegates work in embassies, locust control departments, agricultural universities, agricultural enterprises and innovative technology companies.
Earlier in 2020, the outbreak of the desert locust disaster in Pakistan had a serious impact on agricultural production and food security in the country. The Pakistani government is stepping up efforts to fighting the epidemic. As of the end of April, the Chinese government had provided Pakistan with 300 tons of malathion pesticides and 50 vehicle mounted high-efficiency sprayers to help Pakistan fight the locust disaster.
The two countries’ agricultural departments are actively implementing a Memorandum of Understanding on strengthening cooperation on plant pest and disease control, which aims to improve the ability and level of sustainable management of locusts. “In my opinion, desert locusts might continue to affect Pakistan for several years,” Gu said.
So far, Pakistan has deployed more than 1,100 locust survey and control teams across the country, Gu said, citing sources. The locust exterminators are isolated in the wild and have not been affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. To help Pakistan cope with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs donated 1,000 sets of protective clothing, 1,000 goggles and 30,000 medical masks to the Ministry of National Food Security and Research of Pakistan in early April.
Meanwhile, it is reported that National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has constituted 1,127 teams to conduct locust control operation in effects districts of the country. According to spokesman, the NDMA has completed the poisonous fumes spray of over 4,200 hectare and survey of 290,000 hectare locust swarm hit area of the country in the last 24 hours.
Both ariel and ground spray of various districts was being continued right now. Sharing details of the ongoing efforts to kill locust swarms,he said the spraying of 1,500 hectare area of Balochistan and 8,00 hectare area of Punjab have been completed in the last 24 hours. The treatment of 700 hectare area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 1,200 hectare area of Sindh have been finished in the last 24 hours.
