Sindh demands devolution of Centre’s plant protection department

Sindh Agriculture Minister Mohammad Ismail Rahoo has demanded that the federal government should devolve the control of plant protection department (PPD) to the provincial government in line with the 18th constitutional amendment especially after the PPD’s failure to counter the locust advance in the province.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, he said the control of the PPD should be devolved to the province in accordance with the Article 142 of the constitution.

He stated that the locusts’ arrival in the province was first predicted on May 31, 2019 as larvae of locusts were detected in several districts of the province. It was foretold that if those larvae turned into adults, they could cause massive damage to the agriculture of Sindh, he said, adding that the federal government was under an obligation to take emergency steps to counter this threat.

He said the PPD was responsible to take measures to counter the advance of locusts in Sindh but the federal agency did not take any concrete steps in this regard.

The agriculture minister said agricultural fields in the districts of Sukkur, Nawabshah, Umerkot, Jamshoro, Tando Allahyar, Khairpur had been attacked by the locusts.

He said the Sindh government had used its own resources to conduct fumigation to counter the spread of locusts in the province. He added that the provincial government also established monitoring centres in 15 districts of the province to check the spread of locusts.

He lamented that the federal government and the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission had been alerted by the Sindh government on several occasions about the locusts’ advance in the province but to no avail.

Rahoo was of the view that the role of PPD in countering the threat of locusts in the province had remained limited to the provision of a defective airplane and four vehicles that were insufficient keeping in view the number of insects. He said the defective plane had returned from the province after carrying out spray over merely 5,000 acres in the province. He claimed that the provincial government had utilised its own resources to fumigate an area of over 148,000 acres against the spread of locusts. The agriculture minister said the locusts had originated from Yemen and had reached Sindh from Balochistan.