Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah warned on Wednesday that the next year’s crops would be destroyed if a delay occurred in taking steps to curb locust attacks. He gave the remarks while chairing a high-level meeting for ending locust threats. “The crops for the next year will be destroyed if we don’t step forward to end the locust attacks.” He said that the Sindh government has sprayed anti-locust pesticides on over 43,935 acres of land at own expenses, whereas, 18,871 acres of land was covered by the federal government. The anti-locust pesticides spray was conducted on over 62,813 acres of land in Sindh, he added. CM Shah said that the provincial government also sought assistance from the World Bank (WB). During a briefing, the chief minister was apprised that the locusts are likely to attack crops in Pakistan between August 25 and October 20. It was predicted earlier that fresh swarms of locusts will enter in Pakistan from Iran from May 30 to June 28. The officials told Sindh CM that the first phase of anti-locust spray was completed in the Sindh and Balochistan. The federal government sent one plane for spraying pesticides in Sukkur, whereas, 12 aircraft were made available by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) while airblast sprayers were provided by China. Murad has said that the locust swarms have once again started attacking standing crops in the province, therefore he urged federal government to provide six aircrafts as it has vowed for spray in the desert areas.The chief minister said that a letter was written to the prime minister on May 1, 2020 with the request to provide six aircrafts, ULV sprayers, pesticides, including ULV, LambaCyhalothrin Emulsified Concentrate in sufficient quantity and deploy field teams. But, he said no concrete steps have been taken. Only an old aircraft with one pilot have been kept at Sukkur which has to cover Sindh and Balochistan. He urged the federal government to send five more crafts and required pesticides and teams so that locust could be controlled before the Kharif crops crop up.
