Catch locust, earn money and save crop

Locusts can be controlled by community-based collection of insects and cash buyback

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has been facing a fierce desert locust attack since March 2019 and has declared a state of locust emergency.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reported that hopper bands and swarms continued to form along both sides of the India-Pakistan border where an unprecedented third generation of breeding started in November 2019, which is now spreading to various parts of Pakistan.

While migrating from one to other parts across the country, they destroy any green vegetation coming in their way. The Department of Plant Protection (DPP) is struggling to control locusts in coordination with the provincial agricultural departments to protect different crops.

Locust control includes ground and aerial spray of pesticides but as locusts move from place to place coupled with favourable weather conditions for breeding their population is not fully under control. In addition to that, an unusual phenomenon of locust activities in the winter season has aggravated the situation.

Experts have warned that uncontrolled desert locusts will continue to swarm with increased population and stay in Pakistan throughout this year.

So far, locust control operations are being conducted by the DPP and provincial agricultural departments through aerial and ground pesticide spraying. As against the traditional locust control through pesticides, locusts can be controlled by involving the local community and employing the principle of community-based collection of locusts and guaranteed buyback for cash on the spot.

As locusts are a rich source of protein, they can be used as an important ingredient in poultry and animal meals. Private poultry and animal meal associations can buy the locusts collected by the local community on the spot for meal production. This way, locusts will be controlled in a highly sustainable and chemical-free operation.

Aerial and even ground spray of chemicals kills all sorts of life coming in its way besides polluting the soil, water and air.

Community-based locust control creates a win-win situation for the DPP and provincial governments. It replaces chemicals with manual locust collection, reduces the cost of buying aircraft and vehicle fuels and provides rural communities with handsome earnings in return for picking locusts besides protecting their crops from locust attacks.

The overarching objective is not only to safeguard crops from locust invasion but also ensure income generation for the poor rural communities besides supplying protein-rich insects for poultry and animal meal production.

Example of Yemen

Yemen successfully eradicated desert locusts in May 2019 in an environment-friendly manner and by involving local communities.

Yemen Plant Protection Department Director General Wajeeh Mutawakel said “to control a single swarm spread over one square kilometre and possessing 50 million locusts, they were without any capacity. Such a large swarm can eat 100 tons of greenery in a day that may cause disaster not only in Yemen but also in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

“To cope with the situation local communities were motivated to catch locusts manually and therefore they used the slogan of “Eat locusts before they eat your crops.”

They collected locusts in night time while the insects were dormant and thus, they successfully eradicated locusts as a source of protein-rich food.

Similar strategy

Pakistan can also embark on the same strategy easily but with a different approach of buying the collected locusts on the spot as Pakistani communities don’t eat the insects. This will attract poor rural communities to earn cash by collecting locusts and thereby protect their crops from insect attacks.

It is pertinent to mention that the share of oilseed imports is only lower than the petroleum products in the overall import bill of Pakistan. After oil extraction, the remnants of oilseeds, ie protein meal, can be used as poultry and livestock feed.

Therefore, the locusts collected by the local community will cater to the need of feed industry, thereby, partially replacing imported soybean and cutting down the import bill.

This strategy must immediately be implemented in the best interest of local communities, environment and above all safeguarding the national food security.

The writer is a PhD in natural resources management and is a civil servant

 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th, 2020.

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