United Nations’ food and agri organisation alerts about locust movement during monsoon

JODHPUR: In view of the movement of locusts in southwest Iran, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has said that a few small groups of immature adults could form and move east to the Indo-pakistan border.

In the latest desert locust situation update, FAO said that although control operations continue in southwest Iran against hopper groups, a few small groups of immature adults could form and move east to the Indo-pakistan border.

Small scale breeding is likely to commence with the onset of the monsoon in July, locust numbers should remain low.

“We are monitoring the situation as per FAO’S Desert Locust update, but the chances of a locust attack are very low,” said KL Gurjar, deputy director of the Locust Warning Organization (LWO).

An LWO official said that in view of the last locust attack, the organisation is fully prepared this time.

To further strengthen ground control capabilities,70 new equipment were procured from the United Kingdom to increase the number of ground control teams to 104.

Additionally, 55 vehicles were procured to strengthen the control potential.

Last year to strengthen aerial control capabilities, drones, a Bell helicopter and customised Mi-17 helicopter of Indian Air Force were deployed for loocust control.

A new dimension was added by the use of drones in locust control for the first time in the world after finalizing protocols in coordination with the Ministry of Civil Aviation, he said.

Not a regular phenomenon

According to the factual report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, locust attack is not a regular phenomenon and large scale incursions occur characteristically in cycles of heightened activity for a couple of years followed by long periods of inactivity.

Locust attack was reported in India during 2019-20 and 2020-21, which is an example of one such large scale locust upsurge, when locusts migrated to India after a gap of 26 years.

During 2019-20, locust incursion was reported in three States of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Punjab, while in 2020-21, there was locust incursion in 10 states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

“During 2019-20, Rajasthan and Gujarat had reported crop loss in 1,79,584 hectares and 19,313.14 hectares respectively. During 2020-21, Haryana has reported minimal crop loss much below the norms of compensation. Uttar Pradesh has reported a very nominal crop loss in 202.9 hectares. Maharashtra and Uttarakhand have reported crop loss of below 33% in 805.80 hectares and 292.4 hectares respectively. Madhya Pradesh has reported a partial crop loss of 10-15% in 4400 hectares. Rajasthan has reported crop loss of above 33% in 489.72 hectares and Gujarat has reported crop loss of below 33% in 6832.20 hectares,” as reported by the Ministry of Agriculture.

We are monitoring the situation as per FAO’S Desert Locust update, but the chances of a locust attack are very low

KL GURJAR, deputy director, Locust Warning Organization