ISLAMABAD: The Japanese government, in cooperation with a non-governmental organization (NGOs), would provide insecticide to Pakistan to support its fight against the desert locust’s attacks.
The embassy said in a statement that CWS-Japan, an NGO, would hand over 58,000 litres of insecticide “Lambda Cyhalothrine” to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) this month.
Moreover, it would also extend support to Pakistani farmers, who had been affected by the locust invasion.
In this regard, Japanese Ambassador Matsuda Kuninori met NDMA Chairman Lt Gen Muhammad Afzal and expressed Japan’s commitment to helping Pakistan and its people in their efforts to minimize the damage caused by desert locust.
Matsuda said that in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, it was imperative to successfully control the locust infestation in order to secure the livelihood and food security of the vulnerable communities of Pakistan.
Earlier, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) had cleared locust from over 524,500 hectares of land during the ongoing operation in vulnerable districts of the country.
According to a statement issued by spokesman, some 1,122 teams had been executing the surveillance and anti locust spray operation across country locust hit districts.
The survey of over 355,000 hectares of land and spray of over 4,230 hectares of areas had been conducted during the last 24 hours. In Balochistan, the anti locust spraying was carried out at over 3,500 hectares areas of the land.
In Punjab over 30 hectares of areas had been sprayed while the treatment of over 600 hectares of lands has been carried out in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Similarly, 100 hectare of lands had been cleared from the locust in Sindh.
A total of 46 districts, 33 of Balochistan, nine of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of Punjab and three of Sindh, had been hit by the locust swarms, the statement read.
The spokesman had informed that locusts were spotted in Khuzdar, Awaran, Naushki, Chaghi, Gwadar, Athal, Ketch, Panjgur, Kharan, Vishok, Quetta and other districts of Balochistan.
Several districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including Dera Ismael Khan, Tank, North and South Waziristan, Lakki Marvat, Karak, Kurram, Naushera and Khyber were affected with locust attacks. In Punjab, the locust hit areas included Mianwali.
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