LARKANA: Guava orchards in Aghani village and its adjoining areas, just 12 kilometres from here, came under locust attack again on Thursday, 10 days after a similarly huge swarm devoured other vast areas of Larkana district.

A landowner, Farid Aghani, along with other landowners said the swarm was spreading fast in the areas like Paro jo Goth, Tagar village and vast katcha areas. They said the wheat crop in the area was in its embryonic stage and drastically affected as locusts had devoured it in the nascent age. They noted that the climate change factor this time played its role in delaying the guava crop attaining maturity.

Coupled with the locusts’ attack, this factor would inflict heavy losses to guava growers and contractors, they said. The swarm was also damaging date trees, they added.

Sindh Chamber of Agriculture Larkana district president Sirajul Aulia Rashdi also confirmed that locusts had started eating away guava orchards in the crop’s near-mature stage.

In its previous attack on Nov 19, the swarm had damaged wheat crop in Keti Mumtaz, Sharifpur, Bhuttos’ Estate and Mahota town.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2019