Recently, Balochistan province in southwest Pakistan was once again invaded by desert locusts. According to Pakistan's Dawn newspaper, the village where the desert locust was found is located in the desert area on the border between Baluchistan province and Iran in the southwest, and is currently the main breeding place of desert locust in Pakistan. A large number of local crops and vegetation have been damaged by eating, and insect pests began to spread to the surrounding areas. Experts believe that a new round of locust disaster is in the process of forming, which will bring a severe test to the local government and farmers.

Fahd Rasul, assistant professor of the school of agriculture, Faisalabad Agricultural University, Pakistan, told our reporter that desert locusts have also been found in some areas of Sindh province, a major agricultural province in the south, which means that the new round of locust disaster may develop faster than expected. Rasul said that it is an important time for many crops to grow. Once the locust disaster expands, rice, cotton, mango, sugarcane and other seasonal crops will be seriously affected, causing economic losses, threatening food security and causing social problems.

According to a report released by the FAO representative office in Pakistan recently, Pakistan and Iran are more likely to have a large-scale locust disaster in the next few months. On the one hand, desert locusts have been successfully reproduced in both countries; on the other hand, due to the heavy rainfall in the winter just passed, it provides suitable climate conditions for desert locust breeding.

According to the report, locusts are expected to leave their spring breeding grounds from the end of May, move eastward throughout June, and arrive at their summer breeding grounds in the desert area near the India Pakistan border before the rainy season. FAO believes that the key to control the locust disaster is to control the activity range of desert locust in its spring breeding area and take measures to monitor and block its migration.

The FAO warned that Pakistan is facing the most severe locust control situation in decades: 38% of its land area has become a breeding ground for desert locusts, while Pakistan may be invaded by locusts from East Africa and Iran between late June and the end of July.

The federal government of Pakistan has set up a special high-level committee for locust control and adopted a national action plan to speed up action in resource allocation and financing. Ismail Rahu, Minister of agriculture of Sindh province, said recently that the government of Sindh province has allocated funds to relevant departments to purchase and store pesticides, and will rent aircraft to carry out locust killing operations when necessary.

In order to help Pakistan cope with the locust disaster challenge, China sent a locust disaster prevention and control working group to visit the local area in late February, to assist Pakistan in formulating emergency prevention and control and comprehensive management plan, and to assist Pakistan in locust disaster prevention and control materials and epidemic prevention materials. In April 25th, a number of China's malathion pesticides and traction efficient sprayers were all in place. Li Bijian, China's Consul General in Karachi, said another batch of drones and other materials sprayed with pesticides would be transported to Pakistan by sea.

Rasul said the aid is particularly important for Pakistan to prevent and control the locust disaster. Pakistan needs to make clear its locust control policy as soon as possible and make good use of these materials. The government should speed up the preparation, including monitoring the dynamics of locust swarms more intensively, and carrying out extermination operations in locust gathering areas as soon as possible.

Source: People's daily