Locust attacks to be more severe in coming years

Ministry tells NA panel that tenders placed to buy Malathion spray

ISLAMABAD: An official of the Ministry of Food Security has told a parliamentary panel that swarms of locust are also likely to attack crops in the coming two to three years and may wreak havoc in Balochistan, Sindh and south Punjab.

Ministry of Food Security Secretary Hashim Popalzai on Thursday told the National Assembly’s Standing Committee for Food Security and Research that tender has been placed for purchase of Malathion spray that is used to kill the locusts.

“One hundred thousand litres of spray will be purchased that will be enough for six months. The insecticide will be sprayed in Thal and Hub areas. We are ready to deal with locust swarms and are preparing plans for next three years.

“The government has allocated a fund of Rs5.3 million. We have one airplane in working condition for aerial spray. Another will be operational soon. These aircrafts are 50 years old are not sufficient for the needs. We are planning to award the contract of aerial spray to Pakistan Air Force,” he said.

The committee recommended that the Finance Ministry immediately release the funds specified to counter possible locust attacks. The committee chairman Rao Ajmal Khan said locust swarm lays 500 million eggs at any place where it sojourn during its journey.

“The loss this year is not too much but the next year we expect much greater damage to crops. The attack will start from sub-district Haroonabad in south Punjab and will move towards Sindh and Balochistan,” he said.

The meeting, held at the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, was attended by MNAs Zain Qureshi, Rai Murtaza Iqbal, Shaukat Ali, Ahmed Hussain Deharr, Nausheen Hamid, Shahnaz Saleem, Kamal Uddin and officials of relevant departments.

The chairman said, “Agriculture is the backbone of our economy and we need to focus on this sector and increase its production. We need to increase the capacity of our farmers.”

The committee set up a three-member subcommittee to check the standards of the locally produced tractors. The committee decided to visit the tractor manufacturing plants in Pakistan as it felt that these tractor manufacturing companies were not following any particular standards.

Ministry of Food Security secretary said the government is focusing on reducing the import bill for pulses. Local production of pulses will enable citizens purchase cheap pulses.

Murtaza Iqbal said open-shade policy should be adopted for the farmers as it will protect them from the market mafia. He said a mobile application has been introduced in Islamabad to end role of middleman. If it succeeds them it will be extended to other cities as well.

Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) is supplying 200 thousand tons of wheat to the Utility Stores Corporation (USC). The USC authorities told the committee that subsidy on all the items in the stores was abandoned in 2014.

Rs500m are paid to its employees as salaries and other monthly expenses are RS650m, they said.