Pakistani authorities have declared a national
emergency to battle the swarms of desert locusts which are eating
crops on a large scale and raising fears of food insecurity.
"We are facing the worst locust infestation in more than two decades
and have decided to declare national emergency to deal with the
threat," Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said on Saturday.
The decision and a national action plan to deal with the locust
threat were approved by Prime Minister Imran Khan after a detailed
briefing on Friday.
"I have doubts that we will be able to achieve our wheat production
target of 27 million tons this year," Nisar Khaskhali, a farmer and
member of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture told dpa.
"The locust attack is unprecedented and alarming," minister for
national food security Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar told the National
Assembly on Friday.
He said authorities were struggling to deal with the infestation of
the desert locusts due to limited resources.
The crop-eating grasshopper entered Pakistan in June from Iran and
has already affected large areas across south-western districts and
ravaged cotton, wheat, maize and other crops.
The locust has travelled all the way from the southern province of
Sindh to the northern-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Favourable weather conditions and a delayed response by the
authorities have helped the locusts breed and launch attacks from the
desert on crop areas and nearby towns.
Representative image
