Locusts are present in nine districts of Sindh: Ismail Rahoo

KARACHI: Sindh’s Agriculture Minister Ismail Rahoo has said that the provincial government teams have conducted anti-locust sprays at various parts of the province, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

Rahoo in a social media statement said that the swarms of locusts have affected crops in nine districts of Sindh.

Agriculture minister said that according to reports by some media groups, NDMA had declared presence of locusts in only two districts of Sindh. He termed these reports as incorrect. “Today’s NDMA chart shows presence of locusts in nine districts of the presence,” he said.

Ground teams of provincial agriculture department yesterday conducted spray at 1408 acres, the minister said.

Provincial teams conducted spray in Khairpur, Sanghar, Shaheed Benazirabad, Kashmore, Kandhkot, Dadu, Qambar-Shahdadkot, Matyari, Jamshoro, Hyderabad, Tharparkar and Badin districts, while the federal government has yet to start aerial spray.

He said the swarms of locusts are entering in Sindh and southern Punjab from Balochistan.

Sindh minister apprehended that the locust attacks could inflict the national economy losses to the tune of 451 billion rupees.

Agriculture minister criticizing federal government said that this important national issue facing inattention and warned that locust attacks could push the country into another crisis.

The losses to the agriculture sector in country would create drought and food shortage, he warned.

A meeting of the provincial administration was earlier informed that new swarms of locusts from Iran could enter in Sindh by May 15 this year.

In June last year, swarms of locusts attacked cotton fields in Khairpur, Sukkur, and Ghotki in Sindh. Farmers had to bear losses of hundreds of millions of rupees due to crop damage in the attack.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in first week of September 2019 had warned that the situation relating to locusts in Pakistan was “most serious” as a second generation of the insect had been bred.

According to the FAO’s Locust Watch report, there remains a risk of further breeding, causing locust numbers to increase, with the possibility of swarm formation from late September onward.

Yemen and India are also facing a similar situation, and the situation could deteriorate in Ethiopia and Eritrea, report added.