Rahu reiterates need for centre's help to keep locusts at bay.

HYDERABAD -- Sindh Minister for Agriculture Ismail Rahu has apprehended that locusts currently present in many districts of the province could cause heavy damage to the agriculture sector if not eliminated before rainfall.

'It's the most dangerous enemy we are faced with after Covide-19,' he remarked while chairing a meeting of agriculture extension officials and later addressing a press conference at Shahbaz Hall here on Tuesday.

Mr Rahu was of the view that locusts would inflict a heavy loss to agricultural produce in Sindh and Punjab in the next few months as monsoon was approaching. The loss would ultimately cause food insecurity on a large scale, he added.

'It's a major issue as the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and other international forums have already warned that locusts could attack Pakistan 10 times this year,' the minister said.

He told the meeting that the federal government should help Sindh carry out aerial spray to eliminate locusts' swarms that had already devoured standing crops and green patches in many districts and were a potential threat to remaining agricultural fields in Sindh.

He noted that the swarms were constantly attacking certain districts over the past two months.

He recalled that the federal government had declared a 'national emergency' in January this year and prepared a national action plan to deal with the menace in three phases. 'The first phase is near completion but no significant success has been achieved so far,' he pointed out, and regretted that no effective action was being taken while only meetings after meetings on the issue were being held.

The minister quoted surveys, conducted by some international organisations, suggesting that 300,000 square kilometre area of Pakistan could come under locust attack. The areas identified in the surveys were 50pc of Balochistan, 35pc of Sindh and 15pc of Punjab. 'This means that 100,000sq-km area is vulnerable and 50,000sq-km...