25 UAF students to be sent to control locusts

 Twenty-five postgraduate students of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) would be sent to different areas of the country to control locusts and guide farming community about combat strategy.

25 UAF students to be sent to control locusts :  Twenty-five postgraduate students of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) would be sent to different areas of the country to control locusts and guide farming community about combat strategy. 

This was stated by Secretary National Food Security Omar Hamid Khan while addressing the inaugural session of a training workshop to combat locust, jointly arranged by the Ministry and the UAF at the Syndicate Room.

Omar said that the ministry would send 10 UAF students to Balochistan and rest of them to Tharparkar and Cholistan under Locust Combat Program.  He said that a national locust control centre had been set up in collaboration with NDMA in order to eradicate locusts by mapping out a fruitful strategy.

He said that six aircraft would be specified for field work for locust control. He said that tangible measures were being taken to control locust. He said that collaboration of educational institutions would bring miraculous change and help overcome the challenges being faced by agriculture sector especially locust attack. UAF Vice Chancellor Dr Muhammad Ashraf said that the university had set up a locust research cell under which work was being carried out on war-footing.

He said that locust had become the largest threat for food security. He said after 27 years, it had hit crops at a large level. He said that in near future, a fresh locust attack was likely in the country for which we had to take the measures. He said that as compared to Pakistan, the vegetation in Iran and Afghanistan was low. To meet its food, the locust moved to Pakistan.

Originally published at THE NATION