Pak Army, Agriculture, and Revenue departments are taking part in the combined operation against locusts swarm. The spray is conducting on various acres of land to protect crops.
The combined operation for locusts was the need of an hour. Officers of Pak Army along with Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Tahir Watto monitored combat operation against locust in surrounding areas of Tehsil Athara Hazari, on Wednesday.
Pak Army, Agriculture, and Revenue departments took part in the operation.
In this joint operation, the spray was conducted on 735 acres of land while locusts have been removed from 90 percent of the area.
The DC said that combat operation to kill larva of locusts would continue till making complete area clear from it.
The insects have since fanned out and wreaked havoc on farms from East Africa to India before making their way into Pakistan from the desert on the country’s southwestern border with Iran.
The crisis is so severe that the government has declared a nationwide emergency and urgently appealed for help from the international community.
Officials in southern Sindh province fear the infestation will devastate the supply of cotton, the local cash crop, ahead of its harvest in the coming months.
Local authorities had “launched a combat operation” to clear the area of infestation with pesticide sprays.
Clouds of the noxious gas envelop the nearby fields each morning, where villagers gather the husks of dead insects for an official bounty of 20 rupees (13 cents) per kilogram bag.
Agriculture accounts for 20 percent of Pakistan’s GDP but the sector has already struggled for years in the face of drought and dwindling water supplies.
The country is also experiencing 12-year inflation highs, with the cost of sugar nearly doubling and flour prices jumping 15 percent in the past year.