Civil servants help farmers turn desert locusts into chicken feed
‘Catch locusts. Earn money. Save crops’ is the new slogan to fight the menace
If you can’t beat them catch them. A former civil servant has a simple solution to the devastating phenomenon of desert locust invasion in Pakistan.
At a time when Pakistanis are struggling with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the locust invasion threatens to destroy thousands of hectares of crops in the country.
A pilot project, which is the brainchild of Dr Mohammad Khurshid, a PhD in natural resources management and former civil servant in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research, offers a unique solution to involve farmers to catch locusts and earn money by turning them into highprotein chicken feed.
The two-inch-long greenish-yellow insects may not look as deadly, but a swarm of 40 million of these can eat up as much food as consumed by 35,000 people in a day. Pakistan is undertaking aerial and ground spraying of pesticides to fight the locust plague.
Pilot project
The project, ‘Catch locusts. Earn money. Save crops’, is an innovative and environmentally-safe measure.
“Nobody believed that getting rid of locusts could be this simple. We went out in the field to test. And the result was remarkable!” Dr Khurshid told Gulf News.
Dr Khurshid roped in Johar Ali, a biotechnologist who had previously worked at Pakistan Agricultural Research Council.
A team of agricultural, natural resources and nutritional experts was formed for the pilot project in the Pipli Pahar Forest in Depalpur in the densely-populated Okara district of Punjab, where huge swarms of locusts were reported in February.
To mobilise the community, banners have been put up and local mosques involved to create awareness.
“People were desperate to save their crops. So, when they heard that they would
be paid in return for killing locusts, hundreds of them showed up,” Ali said.
Nightly harvests
Locusts usually fly in the daylight hours and are inactive at night, resting on trees and open ground, making it easier to catch them.
“We found out that the best time to catch locusts was between 10pm and 8am.”
The project offered locals Rs20 (44 fils) per kilogramme of locusts. “Some households managed to earn more than 20,000 rupees with just one night’s effort as they involved all the family members, even children, in the job,” he added.
In four days, the locals managed to collect 25 tonnes of locusts, bringing in bagfuls on carts and bikes to the market. It helped the poor rural communities in two ways: Protecting their crops, as well as earning an extra income.
Protein-rich animal feed
The challenge is to implement the project on a large scale and capture locusts without spraying insecticides or pesticides because only then it is safe to use them as animal feed. One of the most interesting findings is that locusts are extremely rich in protein and other nutrients.
“Analysis showed that locusts contain about 70 per cent protein, which can make excellent feed for the poultry industry that currently imports about 300,000 tonnes of soybean that comprises only 30 to 45 per cent protein,” Ali told Gulf News.