Federal and provincial governments are doing coordinated effort to eliminate locusts from Pakistan. This was stated by Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research, Syed Fakhar Imam while chairing the meeting of National Locusts Controle Centre (NLCC) on Friday. Lieutenant General Moazzam Ejaz, Coordinator NLCC also co chaired the meeting. The briefing was started with NLCC briefing. So far in entire country 85.448671 square kilometers (approximately 11.09 crore acres) have been surveyed and 25.10775 square kilometers (approximately 62.26 million acres) have been controlled. In the last 24 hours in Balochistan province, 210625 acres were surveyed and operation was carried out on 193 acres in 4 districts (Naseerabad, Dera Bugti, Ziarat and Awaran) on the presence of locusts. So far 70.3 crore acres have been surveyed and 1159960 acres have been operated across the province.In the last 24 hours in Sindh province, 94708 acres were surveyed and 3403 acres were operated on the presence of locusts in 2 districts (Tharparkar and Umerkot). 3 pilots have been trained in Sukkar.An agreement with R&D Engineering Company, Karachi has been signed for micron sprayers.25 etymologists have been inducted.12 drones have been handed over by Chinese government to Pakistani embassy in China.
FAO gave locust forecast. As per the forecast, Pakistan, control operations are in progress against hopper groups and bands in the Nagarparkar area of southeast Sindh near the Indian border. Groups of adults are maturing in Tharparkar and Cholistan deserts where laying is expected in areas that have already received monsoon rains. This will cause a further increase in locust numbers as hatching and hopper band formation occur in the coming weeks.
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