QUETTA: After leaving their trail of destruction in Sindh and Punjab, swarms of locusts have now attacked thousands of acres wheat crops in Kohlu district of Balochistan, ARY News reported on Monday.
The swarms of crop eating grasshoppers are now reported to land in Mawand, Kunal, Manjhra, Kahan, Sardar Shahar, Oriani and adjoining areas of the district since a week and have badly affected the crops of wheat and onion.
According to reports, the crop eating insects have inflicted huge losses to the wheat cultivators in the region. The farmers have demanded an immediate step from the provincial and district authorities to curb the menace.
Earlier, the swarms of locusts were reported to descend in Quetta and before it in Mastung, Dasht and Kund Mesori areas of Balochistan.
The crop eating insects bring hunger with them by thoroughly eating cops and all vegetation they find at any place.
In June this year, swarms of locusts attacked cotton fields in Khairpur, Sukkur, and Ghotki. Farmers had to bear hundreds of thousands of rupees losses due to crop loss in the attack.
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in first week of September 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 said.
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