Crop losses have been reported in several areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, particularly in Dera Ismail Khan district, from where these locust swarms were entering Punjab thereby posing a serious threat to the food basket of the country.
Winding up the debate on locusts in the National Assembly on Thursday, Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhr Imam said the government was keeping a vigil on the movement of swarms of desert locusts entering Pakistan from four countries: Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti in the horn of Africa via Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Iran.
He said that new swarms of desert locusts would enter Balochistan from Iran over the next two weeks, adding that the province was already the worst-hit with its 33 districts already invaded by insects.
In Balochistan, he said, ground operation against locusts had been carried out over 85,000 hectares by ground teams and aerial sprays had been carried out over 500 hectares.
A well-coordinated operation involving the federal and provincial governments, the district administration and farmers was under way to eliminate locusts.
At the same time, he said, the federal government was in close coordination with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations which was keeping Pakistan informed on a daily basis on the movement of locust swarms in the region.
The minister said that the department of plant protection of the ministry of national food security was recruiting 100 entomologists, 50 locust assistants and 50 drivers on an emergency basis to help the government fight the menace.