Decrying a lack of support from the Centre to tackle locusts’ attack, the Sindh government has decided to register a protest with the federal government over the issue. Sindh Minister for Agriculture Ismail Rahoo said swarms of locusts have entered Sindh and Balochistan from the neighbouring countries of India and Iran. “Locusts will prove more dangerous than coronavirus,” he cautioned. He said the provincial government has been informing the Centre about the locusts attacks for a year but in vain. Ismail Rahoo noted that 60 per cent of the country’s rural population that relies on agriculture will suffer if locusts are not eliminated. Earlier, a high-level meeting of the provincial government was informed that new swarms of locusts from Iran could enter Sindh from May 15. Chief Secretary Mumtaz Ali Shah chaired the meeting to review the locust situation in the province. A method of aerial sprays will made use of to consume 100,000 litres of pesticide against locusts while 25,000 litres of pesticide will be used against locust swarms by using the boom spray method. The chief secretary expressed the resolve to utilise all the available resources of the Sindh government to get rid of the issue of locust attacks against the farmlands of the province. He said that the government had commenced the process of pesticides for its use against locusts through aerial and other mechanical spray methods. He said that the locust advance constituted another emergency situation for the province much like the Covid-19 crisis, and for this reason the issue was part of the agenda of the next meeting of the Sindh cabinet. Around 60 countries across the world have been affected by the attacks of locusts, the meeting was briefed. The government has established camps at 30 places and constituted 57 teams comprising 180 persons to tackle the threat, it was further informed. The officials of Sindh Agriculture Department and Plant Protection Department part of these teams.
