Farmers 'left to fend for themselves' against locusts.

VEHARI -- Swarms of locust attacked crops in various areas of Mailsi tehsil of the district during the last 24 hours where farmers were fending for themselves without any help from fund-strapped agriculture department.

As per local farmers the vegetation-eating insects attacked various areas of Mailsi tehsil, including Nitro, Garah Mor, 149/WB village, Bulandpur, Tibba and damaged the crops, including cotton, wheat, maiz, sunflower and vegetables.

They said the locusts had also reached some areas of Multan and damaged various crops there.

The farmers, including Mumtaz, Abdul Rashed, Jawed Shah and Rashid Joiya said they were helpless in face of locusts that were badly damaging their crops.

They lamented the apathy of local agriculture department officials who, they claimed, did not provide any professional help or pesticide sprays to them to destroy the locusts.

They demanded the Punjab government should provide spray machines and pesticides to them so that they could save their crops from locusts.

On the other hand, agriculture Deputy Director Rana Arif claimed while speaking to Dawn that the department officials had already sprayed the crops with pesticides.

However, he said the department was short of funds required to spray pesticides in all the affected areas.

An official, Mehr Iqbal, admitted that the farmers were trying to save their crops from locusts attack on self-help basis as the local agriculture department had no funds for the purpose.

The farmers demanded the provincial government should immediately look into the matter and help the farmers save their crops.

LODHRAN: A massive swarm of locusts stormed Lodhran farms.

According to farmers, locusts have...