KARACHI: A Chinese team of experts arrived in Pakistan on Sunday to formulate a plan to deal with the country's locust emergency-- by drawing from Beijing's experience battling similar infestations, Chinese officials said.
Since June 2019, billions of locusts have been destroying crops in large swathes in Pakistan, as well as in some Indian states. The ongoing infestation originated in the Middle East and experts have pointed to climate change as the primary reason for unprecedented levels of favorable breeding conditions for the insects-- which have also invaded China's borders.
“China has been dealing with the locusts in the past few decades and gained rich experience in controlling [the crisis]. We have specially developed lots of technologies in this regard. We can provide pesticides, airplanes, drones and some other equipment required by the Pakistan side,” Li Bijian, Consul General of China in Karachi, told Arab News on Sunday.
Pakistan declared a national emergency over locust swarms earlier this month after the food ministry gave a briefing to parliament, with a warning that the country was facing the worst locust infestation in two decades.
“At the invitation of the government of Pakistan, an expert team controlling the locusts sent by the Government of China will visit the relevant areas in Sindh, Balochistan provinces from February 23 to March 4, 2020,” a statement issued on Sunday by the Consulate General's office said.
The Chinese teams will be accompanied by Bijian throughout their visit to infested districts, including to Quetta.
Currently, China is battling the critical outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID) which has been declared a WHO global public health emergency, as well as destructive locust attacks in its Xinjiang area.
“Right now, the government and people of China are fighting a war against the COVID-2019. From the very beginning of the outbreak... government and people of Pakistan have been firmly standing together with China to fight the epidemic,” the statement said and added China would stand by Pakistan in its time of need.
Pakistani growers say efforts made by local authorities so far to contain the pest invasion has had limited results, mainly due to a lack of modern combat methodology.
“We fear that in coming May or June, the locust attacks will be even more severe when the eggs hatch. The use of latest technology will be a more effective way of dealing with the attack,” Nisar Khaskheli, President of the Khairpur chapter of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, told Arab News.
Pakistani authorities estimate that locust attacks have damaged around 80,000 hectares of crop and pastures in Sindh and Baluchistan while the locust army has also invaded areas of Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
Last week, the South Asian country joined hands with the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to enhance its battle against locusts.
An agreement signed by the FAO chief and Khusro Bakhtiar, Pakistan’s federal minister for National Food Security and Research, will enable Islamabad to avail $700,000 from the organization for the fight against the pest invasion.
