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Locusts have wreaked havoc on croplands in Pakistan's eastern Punjab, southern Sindh and southwestern Baluchistan provinces. They also attacked crops on the northwestern border of Afghanistan.
Locust attacks have spread across Pakistan, with officials saying crops and orchards have been damaged. Fighting a viral epidemic that has already killed more than 1,300 people poses a threat to the food security of poor Islamic nations.
Massive swarms of the desert locust, which experts say originates in Africa and is the most destructive of the locust species, began damaging crops in Pakistan last month.
But the situation worsened this week and authorities began dispatching aircraft and spraying machines filled with pesticides mounted on vehicles to eliminate the insects, which are roughly the length of a finger and fly together by the millions.
Farmers could be seen wading through clouds of the insects as some tried to kill them with sticks.
Chaudhry Asghar, an agriculture officer in Multan, said millions of desert locusts had already damaged orchards, crops and vegetables.
"We have intensified efforts to save our crops from any further invasion of locusts," Syed Fahar Imam, minister for National Food Security, said Friday. He said the government will buy five more aircraft for spraying crops.
The insects have wreaked havoc on swathes of farmland in eastern Punjab, southern Sindh and southwestern Baluchistan provinces. They also attacked crops in the northwest bordering Afghanistan. Find more...
Source: Online/SZK
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