Locusts bigger threat than coronavirus
Staff Reporter
Lahore
The ongoing locust attack in Pakistan has become a much bigger risk than the coronavirus pandemic as they may affect agriculture output and threaten food security, said a report published in Bloomberg News. Falak Naz, director general of crop protection at the Ministry of Food Security and Research, told the publication that the locust-invasion now covers an area of 57 million hectares, which includes 23 million hectares of a total crop area of Pakistan.
Naz said that the areas attacked are not crop lands but warned that the swarm was moving fast. The agriculture sector, which now faces devastating losses, has forced the authorities to divert the money, originally earmarked to fight the coronavirus, to help combat the scourge now.
“This is a bigger problem than the coronavirus for Pakistan,” said Ahmad Jawad, a fruits exporter and an adviser to the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry told Bloomberg.
“You can save yourself from coronavirus by maintaining social distance, but there’s no escaping a hunger crisis if the locusts attack,” he added. According to the publication, the crops have already been damaged by the swarms, with cotton crop being seen as the most vulnerable. Cotton-based products also make up about half of the country’s exports.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has so far treated total 538,100 hectares of area during the ongoing locust control operations in the vulnerable districts of the country. According to NDMA spokesman, the authority has carried out spray of over 346,000 hectares of area under locust attack was managed in last 24 hours.
Some 1,129 teams were engaged in the locusts control operation in the vulnerable districts. The teams carried out both aerial and ground spray of 7,600 hectare area of Balochistan, 600 hectare area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 500 hectare area of Sindh during the last 24 hours, he said. The aerial spray of 170 hectare of land was carried out in Pashin.
The spokesman said a total of 46 districts, 33 of Balochistan, eight of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and five of Sindh, had been hit by the locust swarms. In Balochistan, Khuzdar, Awaran, Naushki, Chaghi, Gwadar, Athal, Ketch, Panjgur, Kharan, Vishk, Quetta and other districts have been hit by desert locust.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, North and South Waziristan, Lakki Marvat, Karak, Aurakzai, Khyber and Khuram areas were affected with locust attacks.
No locust swarm were spotted in any area of Punjab during last 24 hours. In Sindh the affected areas included Khairpur, Sukkur, Matiyari, Kamshoro and Shaheed Benazirabad.
