Expressing concern over the damage to crops and orchards on millions of acres of land as a result of locust attacks, Pakistan Sarzameen Party (PSP) President Anis Kaimkhani said on Saturday that despite the fact that the federal and provincial governments had received prior information about the locust attacks, they failed to take steps to prevent them.
The PSP president said 60 out of 135 districts of Pakistan, which was 45 per cent of the country, had been severely affected by locust attacks because of the government’s incompetence. Almost 40 per cent of cereals and tomato crops in Sindh had been completely destroyed, he added.
He expressed these views while talking to a delegation of farmers belonging to Larkana district at the Pakistan House, the PSP’s central secretariat.
Citing media reports, Kaimkhani said two more locust attacks were expected in Pakistan.
“Despite this grim situation, indifference and incompetence of the federal and the four provincial governments is worth noting as no action has been taken by the governments, which is totally catastrophic not only to the farmers but also to an agricultural country like Pakistan,” the PSP leader said.
He added that farmers were trying to fight locust attacks on their own because there seemed to be no government. “The rulers are not serious about solving the problems of the masses, due to which the farmers along with the common people are now suffering from severe mental anguish.”
He called on the federal and provincial governments to immediately impose an agricultural emergency, besides paying compensation to farmers for the damaged crops, and take effective measures to protect crops from locusts.