Islamabad: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has warned Pakistan if it doesn’t conduct prevention for the locust attack timely then autumn crops or Kharif crops can be affected by 75 percent.
Pakistan has faced an intense attack of locust coming from African countries after a period of 36 years.
The locust entered the country back in the previous year October. As per the FAO, these insects laid eggs in 38 percent of the barren and desert lands in Pakistan which is now on swamp locust attack in Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab.
The locust attack strikes in an organized manner within a few hours it turned to the next areas after ruining fields and crops after another.
The FAO recognizes that Pakistan’s federal as well as provincial governments severely lack manpower, machinery and equipment to find against the locust attacks.
It warns that the locust attack can incur harm of worth of Rs 8.70 billion dollars.
According to the agriculture experts after the 18th amendment, the ministry of agriculture has been removed due to which the international cooperation dealing with locust attack declined substantially while the availability of funds to the federal Plant and Protection Department also decreased.
On the other hand, the provinces didn’t take any important measures for the improvement of agriculture despite having ample resources.
