Threat of locusts attack subsides with start of winter.

RAHIM YAR KHAN -- The threat of locusts attack on standing crops has subsided reduced because its breeding season has concluded due to the start of winter season and it is migration towards coastal areas of North.

Director General Punjab Agriculture Pest Control Syed Zafaryab Haider informed reporters here the other day. Haider had arrived at Rahim Yar Khan to check recent complaints of locusts attacks in the district. He said that mature locusts damage the crops less than newly-born insects. He said that last time in 1997, locusts had appeared in the desert of Bahawalpur division and later over the past 25 years, the insect could not be spotted across country.

He informed that basically locusts is a insect of desert, which starts its journey from African countries and later after travel through Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Iran it enters the coastal areas of Balochistan in the month of March where it started breeding.

He revealed that a female locust delivers 80 to 150 eggs and after breeding season, it enters Nara desert in Khairpur district of Sindh in April 2019. In the end of June locusts enter some areas of RYK desert (Cholistan).

Meanwhile, Mr Haider spoke at an awareness workshop organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of UNO of all...