ISLAMABAD: Nearly 8,000 Pakistani troops have been deployed to assist other government departments in the country's anti-locust fight, Minister for National Food Security and Research said on Saturday.
Syed Fakhar Imam added that a select team for surveillance and control, headed by an entomologist, will also include “a locust assistant, a representative of local community and manpower from Pakistan Army".
It follows a visit to the National Locust Control Center (NLCC) in Islamabad by Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on June 4, wherein he assured authorities that the army would be assisting the civic officials in combating the locust threat.
“The army will make all possible resources available to help civil administration in combating the locust threat,” he had said at the time.
In a statement issued late on Saturday night, Imam said that the desert locusts had found a new corridor and were entering Pakistan from Afghanistan via the Dera Ismail Khan and Waziristan areas.
“Federal government will spend Rs 14 billion, and provincial governments will contribute Rs 12 billion to counter the locust (issue),” the minister said.
He added that dedicated teams had been deployed to disinfect select areas, adding that the NLCC, along with the National Disaster Management Authority and district administrations, were making a concerted effort to control the problem.
Pakistan had already declared a national emergency, in February, to deal with the invasion.
Facilitating Islamabad in its anti-locust fight is China which has extended financial help to the tune of $4.9 million and shared 20 aircraft for the purpose.
Massive swarms of the destructive desert locust entered Pakistan for the first time after 1993 in June last year, with the crop-eating grasshopper expanding its territory to 61 districts in all four provinces of the country.
Locusts reproduce rapidly, with the eggs hatching after about two weeks, while they can fly up to 150 km per day, and travel nearly 2,000 km in their lifetime to find a favorable breeding ground.
