The locust threat

Swarms of locust are in Sindh and Balochistan since October but only now Federal Minister for National Food Security Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar has admitted the presence of this 'Biblical plague' in Pakistan, and that too in response to a question raised by MNA from Bahawalpur Riaz Pirzada in the National Assembly. "There is a big threat. If we have to declare national emergency we will," the minister said. And as he opened up on this he told the house that in terms of locust existence, Pakistan has already entered "third category" and is just one step away from entering the last one. Locust swarms have been detected almost in all provinces after they entered from Iran in the west and India in the east. And it is quite likely that these swarms may be the second generation of this apocalyptic curse, a possibility accentuated by changing weather conditions caused by rains in various parts of Pakistan and increasingly cold weather in Iran. And, quite expectedly, the minister blamed the previous government for this. In 1990, the then plant protection departments were equipped with some 20 aircraft for aerial dusting and a number of vehicle-mounted spraying machines. Now, he added, there are no aircraft and vehicles - the one the federal government had for the purpose crashed last month while conducting aerial spraying near Rahimyar Khan killing its two pilots. How come then such a sorry state of affairs in Pakistan is not reflected in the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO's) outlook about what it called the "worst locust outbreak" in East Africa. That the FAO took no notice of this menace in Pakistan, especially when it is under its severe attack, is a disturbing development and the concerned quarters in Islamabad therefore owe an explanation in this regard. The FAO wants some $76 million to help control the outbreak in the area, particularly Kenya, which is not well-prepared - quite like Pakistan.

Climate change and weather conditions play an important role in locust breeding, the two headaches more seriously besetting Pakistan today than ever before. Previously, the locust swarms used to move to Iran after sometime, but this time they are still in Pakistan due to low temperatures. Given these conditions, the locusts breed and multiply. According to experts, total number of locusts in a swarm varies from a few hundred millions to several billions. In the past, when Pakistan was not a food-scarcity country, the locust swarms would be driven away to the sea by aircraft to die as they would descend on waves to spend the night. At local levels, the farmers do beat drums and burn stubbles to scare away locusts, but that is no answer to the magnitude of threat now besetting Pakistan. Locusts relish new vegetation, which is now in the form of wheat crop, and it is wheat that is now in short supply. So, even when it is late in recognising enormity of the locust threat the government must act by putting in place adequate anti-locust means and tools - fighting the locust is essentially a responsibility of the federal government. It should call for a national emergency. We must know that inaction on the part of concerned departments would encourage locusts to visit Pakistan regularly.