KARACH: Eight months after locust swarms attacked crops in southeast Pakistan, the plague continues to deprive Sindh farmers of crops and livelihood.

“It was last June when locusts arrived in our fields and deprived us of our crops. They continue to haunt us till now, while authorities pretend that nothing is happening and that they have done enough to control it,” Shahbaz Rajpar, a grower in Faizganj area of Sindh province, told Arab News.

From the Red Sea coast of Sudan and Eritria, the locusts emerged in January last year. In February, they hit Saudi Arabia and Iran. In March, they entered Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province.
In May, the swarming short-horned grasshoppers were spotted in the Nara desert, prompting the Department of Plant Protection (DPP) at the Ministry of National Food Security and Research to apply insecticides. But some of the insects survived and started to breed out of control, spreading to Thar and Kohistan.

The locusts damaged cotton crops but after aerial pesticide application, there was some calm. Until December.

“In the December attack, the locusts damaged our wheat and vegetable crops. They couldn’t hurt sugarcane as it was already ripe. But when it gets warmer, they will destroy whatever little is left,” Rajpar said, adding that his field was not only the source of his income but also of nearly 150 people working on his 300-acre land. “This will impact over 8,000 people in my village only,” he said.

“We will not produce wheat for others. As our own stock is finished with zero produce this season, we, the producers, will also have to buy wheat for own usage,” Rajpar said, bracing for another locust attack as the insects have laid millions of eggs in nearby desert areas.

A locust can lay up to 90 eggs and its life cycle is 70. As they are rapidly multiplying, there are already so many that “it looks like the entire earth is moving” in the nearby desert, Rajpar said. 

Sindh Agriculture Minister Ismail Rahoon said the provincial authorities were doing all they could to save the crops but had no backing from the central government.
“Currently, Khairpur, Tharparkar, and parts of Sukkar are affected but there were millions of egglings in twelve districts of the province. We were expecting the locusts to leave but the rain spells and cold weather have stopped their migration,” Rahoon said, adding that he fears the when egglings in Punjab, Balochistan, and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa turn locusts, they will also attack crops in Sindh.

In June, Rahoon said, the plant protection department had conducted a 10-day aerial application of pesticides on an area of 6,000 acres only. “There should be a large scale operation against locusts,” he said, urging the federal government to declare it as a natural calamity and “provide all resources as this is a huge threat to the agricultural economy.”

Nisar Khaskhely of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture on Wednesday shared a video of a fresh locust attack on his crops. He said the swarm was 10 kilometers in size.

“Alarming & big dangerous situation of #Locusts attack in #Khairpur #Sindh around 10 KM size roaming,” Khaskhely tweeted.

Alarming & big dangerous situation of #Locusts attack in #khairpur #Sindh around 10 KM size roaming @BBhuttoZardari @ImranKhanPTI @ShahNafisa @KhusroBakhtyar @IsmailRahu @MuradAliShahPPP @AajKamranKhan @HamidMirPAK @WFP @MediaCellPPP @SindhCMHouse @DRMAHREENBHUTTO @ZahidGhanbhir pic.twitter.com/MDtjw1RLni

— Nisar Khaskhely (@nisarkhaskhely) January 22, 2020

“This is frightening. We have serious food security concerns as there seems no check at the place,” Khaskhely told Arab News and added. “There is an idiom that ‘a stitch in time saves nine.’ Here, it seems the authorities may take the situation to a level beyond nine stitches.”

Desert locusts have been destroying crops in Africa and Asia for centuries. With their ability to move in huge swarms at great speed, they are one of the world’s most devastating agricultural plagues.