Govt declares national emergency to curb locust threat

Secretary National Food Security Division will be the chairman of the committee.

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The government on Friday has decided to impose a national emergency to protect the crops in the wake of locust threat which is swarming all over the agriculture domain of the country.

Prime Minister Imran Khan presided over a high-level meeting today which was convened to combat the locust problem. A National Action Plan (NAP) was approved to eliminate the plight while, a high-level committee was also formed to devise an effective strategy at the federal level to get rid of the threat from different parts of the country.

PM Imran said that the protection of agriculture and farmers is the foremost priority of the government.

Under the plan, responsibilities were assigned at federal, provincial and districts level while National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has also been given tasks to curb the threat. Secretary National Food Security Division will head the committee. The federal government will provide all the necessary resources in this regard.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in the first week of September 2019 had warned that the situation relating to locusts in Pakistan was “most serious” as a second generation of the insect had been bred.

According to the FAO’s Locust Watch report, there remains a risk of further breeding, causing locust numbers to increase, with the possibility of swarm formation from late September onward.