‘Scientists achieve initial success in locusts prevention’

MULTAN: The Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture has detected locusts attack in nine south Punjab districts and started research on them.

Talking to The News, MNSUA Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Asif Ali said that the university had sent special teams to the south Punjab districts to find out locust swarms.

The teams of agriculture scientists had found locust attacks in irrigated and non-irrigated areas, including Rahimyar Khan, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Vehari, Sahiwal, Bhakkar and Rajanpur districts, he told.

The university had sent scientists teams, which had found locusts’ attack in fertile areas, he informed. The locusts attack was rare last year but now it had grown into swarms this year and destroyed crops, trees and greenery in interior Sindh and Punjab, he said.

The university had engaged Dean Agriculture Prof Dr Shafqat Saeed, Dean Social Sciences Prof Dr Irfan Ahmed Baig, Prof Dr Muhammad Ishfaq, Dr Ansar Naeemullah Dr Naeem Iqbal, Dr Muhammad Arslan Khan, Prof Dr Mirza Abdul Quyyum, Prof Dr Nadeem Ahmed and Prof Dr Hassan to conduct a research on locusts, he added.

The MNSUA teams had collected samples of locusts from Sadiqabad and adjacent areas and deeply observed locusts’ destruction, including crops, weeds and desert plants besides locusts’ life cycle and color of the pest, he continued.

The scientists’ teams were experimenting different kinds of poisons on locusts’ samples and reviewed their effectiveness, he maintained.

The scientists were applying different bacteria and fungus upon locusts through biological process, he said.

Prof Dr Muhammad Asif Ali said that the MNSUA scientists had achieved initial success in locusts’ prevention in labs and now the Biological Control Agents were checked in the fields. He said that the university would present a comprehensive plan of action against locusts to the government, he added.

The MNSUA agri scientists were consulting international organisations like Food and Agriculture Organisation, Livestock Department, Agriculture Extension, the federal and provincial plant protection departments, Cholistan Development Authority, forestry and district management, he told.

The agriculture scientists were investigating global positioning of locusts and its arrival from Africa to Middle East, Iran and then Pakistan and the research analyzing its arrival into Pakistan, he added.