Mild To Medium Locust Attack In Cotton Belt Observed

Desert locust attacks, which damaged crops and fruit orchards standing over million of hectares across Punjab, Sindh, Khuber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan have also effected the cotton a major cash crop of the season

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd Jun, 2020 ) :Desert locust attacks, which damaged crops and fruit orchards standing over million of hectares across Punjab, Sindh, Khuber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan have also effected the cotton a major cash crop of the season.

However, the attack of desert locust in cotton belt was so far mild to medium and it was expected that there would be a minimum damage to crop, said Cotton Commissioner in the Ministry of National food Security and Research, Dr Khalid Abdullah.

Talking to APP here on Wednesday, he said that respective provincial governments were conducting the damage assessment survey to formulate mechanism to avert any further threat.

He said that the farmers of cotton sowing areas have also been sensitized against any possible threat to their crop and an awareness drive was also launched for using the conventional and unconventional methodologies to overcome the attack and minimize the damage.

Dr Abdullah further informed that due to vigilance, the pest attacks in cotton filed remained mild to medium, adding that the farmers used conventional methods to eradicate the locust swarm.

Now, the locust had crossed the cotton sowing areas across all the provinces and it is also expected that there would be little damage.

The Cotton Commissioner said that Ministry of National Food Security and Research with close coordinating of the provincial governments were working to evolve a mechanism to control the menace of locust to avoid damage to agriculture sector in the country.

He informed that joint teams were conducting a comprehensive survey and control operation against locusts in different districts of the country.

More than 1,142 joint military teams are taking part in anti-locust operation in 53 districts, he said adding that so far 238,399 square kilometers (approximately 24 million hectares) have been surveyed.

Meanwhile, control operations have been carried out in an area of 5,389 square kilometers (approximately 538,934 hectares).