Spray-mounted vehicles trying to get rid of locusts

Agriculture and plant protection departments employ spray-mounted vehicles to get rid of the locust plague.

SUKKUR: The agriculture and plant protection departments have employed spray-mounted vehicles to get rid of the locust plague.

This special breed of grasshoppers is coming across the Indian border and have reached Sene Wari, Ehsan Wari and Gopi Wari, in the desert area of Khangarh.

EDO Agriculture Ghotki Riaz Dayo told The Express Tribune that their teams sprayed an area of 200 hectares on September 18, 80 hectares the next day and 45 hectares on the third day. During this time, they have managed to kill millions of locusts.

Dayo said that they have not used aerial spraying as yet because spray-mounted vehicles are doing a pretty good job at the moment. He added that, if needed, they will call for aircraft as well.

The EDO complained that the Indian officials are not warning them about the incoming locusts. “We have contacted Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), who summoned a meeting of Indian and Pakistani officials on September 28,” he said.

The director of the plant protection department, Muhammad Akbar Zardari, has come from Karachi to monitor the locusts’ movement.

“Earlier, it was difficult to control it but now it is under control,” he said, adding that, “we have planes ready for spraying and they will be used if needed”. He hoped that the locusts will be destroyed in a couple of days.

The first locust movement was observed on September 17 in Khangarh. Since then, the agriculture and plant protection departments have been working on fumigation.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2010.