Locusts attack crops in Tharparkar

Villagers claim the government did not carry out preventive sprays

HYDERABAD: As anticipated by experts, locusts have begun to attack crops after the monsoon rains. Farmers from a dozen villages in Islamkot taluka of Tharparkar have complained that their crops have been devastated by locusts which invaded vegetation in parts of Sindh after a long lapse of around 22 years in May this year.

Villagers Shamsuddin, Wali Muhammad, Ameer Hassan and others, told the local media that the government did not carry out preventive sprays even though it was being predicted that a new generation of locusts will rise after the rains. "We have faced long years of drought," bewailed Hassan. "The good rainfall this year gave us hope of harvesting a good crop but the locusts have destroyed everything."

According to village residents, locusts have also devoured the pastures of their livestock animals which will result in another year of drought in the desert region.

Earlier this month, Deputy Commissioner Shahzad Tariq Thaeem told Agriculture Minister Ismail Rahu at a meeting in Tharparkar that 9,500 acres of land in the desert region had been sprayed till the last week of June.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2019.