Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah asks Centre to provide five aircraft for operation against locusts

KARACHI: Saying that locust swarms have once again started attacking standing crops in the province, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had urged the federal government to provide six aircraft, as it had earlier promised, for carrying out spray against the locusts in the desert areas.

The CM presided over a meeting on Wednesday regarding the situation of locusts in Sindh. The meeting was attended by Agriculture Minister Ismail Rahu, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, Principal Secretary to CM Sajid Jamal Abro, Finance Secretary Hassan Naqvi, Agriculture Secretary Raheem Soomro, Brigadier Huzaifa of V Corps, Provincial Disaster Management Authority Director General (DG) Salman Shah, DG Agriculture Extension Hidayatullah, Federal Government Department of Plant Protection Director Tariq Ali Khan and others.

The CM said he had been receiving reports from the growers that the locust swarms had again started to attack their crops. “This is a serious situation and must be addressed as soon as possible, otherwise food security issue would be inevitable,” he said.

The provincial agriculture minister and secretary informed the meeting that initially Ghotki and Kashmore districts were affected by locusts in April 2020. Mostly, the desert areas of the province were under threat, they added.

The meeting was told that locusts came from Balochistan and adopted the route of Jacobabad, Larkana, Kamber-Shahdadkot and Jamshoro to travel to other districts. Adult locust swarms affected almost all the districts and the agriculture department had taken immediate efforts for survey and control operation, it was said.

Locust swarms, the meeting was informed, attacked Ghotki in April 2020 where 18,829 acres were affected and a similar attack was reported in Kashmore where emergency was declared and spray was carried out on 19,227 acres.

Rahu said the nymphs present in desert areas of Tharparkar, Umerkot, Sanghar, Shaheed Benazirabad, Khairpur, Sukkur and Ghotki were a serious threat as they could move to the cultivated areas.

He said that the federal government’s department of plant protection (DPP) had helped the agriculture department in its control operation in the districts of Ghotki, Kashmore and Khairpur. The DPP covered an area of 18,871 acres, he said, adding that over 62,813 acres had been treated in 22 districts of the province.

The agriculture secretary said the DPP and National Disaster Management Authority had provided safety kits for 28 teams of the control operation, deployed five teams along with spray vehicles and delivered 12 tractor-mounted air blasts that had been given by the Chinese government.

It was said that the DPP and NDMA had also reserved 124,000 litres of ULV pesticides in Mirpurkhas and Sukkur for the desert area spray. The DPP also imparted training to 50 agriculture field staff for handling ULV sprayers.

The CM said a letter was written to the prime minister on May 1, 2020, with the request to provide six aircraft, ULV sprayers and pesticides in sufficient quantity and deploy field teams. He lamented that no concrete steps were taken despite the letter.

Only an old aircraft was available in Sukkur to cover the entire Sindh and Balochistan, he said, urging the federal government to send five more aircraft, and required pesticides and teams so that locusts could be controlled before the Kharif crops were ready to be harvested.

Brig Huzaifa told the meeting that the progressive move of Iranian locusts from Fars, Jask and Sistan would take place by the end of May towards Pakistan. He added that the control operation would be intensified during the migration of locusts to eliminate the threat.

According to him, owing to the dry conditions in Thar and Rajasthan, the adult locusts were migrating towards the green belt of India. He said it was expected that the subsequent waves of locust swarms would settle in Thar for breeding.

Giving the reference of the 2019 locust migration, Brig Huzaifa said they would likely move towards Balochistan, Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa by the end of May.

He added that the locust threat was expected during June when swarms would move from Khuzdar towards Dadu, Naushehro Feroze and Khairpur. From Lasbela, swarms would move to Thatta, Hyderabad, Badin and Mirpurkhas before settling in Thar.

The CM directed the agriculture department, PDMA, DPP and Corps V officials to share day-to-day situation of the threat so that loopholes could be addressed in a timely manner.