PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government informed Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday that no damage to crops had been reported from any part of the province due to locust infestation.

The provincial authorities through a video link briefed the prime minister on the locust movement in southern districts, according to a statement.

The premier was briefed about the steps taken so far for effective surveillance and control of locust. Chief Minister Mahmood Khan along with his team attended the briefing.

The PM was informed that emergency had been declared in seven high-risk districts and overall 55 teams had been deployed for 24-hour surveillance and control of locust in these areas.

He was told that 24 different camps had also been established in the high-risk areas with maximum possible number of human resource and logistics and that so far 11,754 hectors of land had been declared locust-affected.

The provincial government had put in place a locust surveillance and control strategy well in time, approved an emergency fund of Rs50 million and had launched a mass awareness campaign for educating the local farmers.

He was further informed that seven districts, including DI Khan, Lakki Marwat, South Waziristan, North Waziristan, Tank, Orakzai and Kurram had been declared as high-risk areas and a total 8,843 hectors of land was constantly being kept under surveillance.

So far 114 spray operations had been conducted in the affected areas, and the agriculture department had developed an Android-based application to facilitate and educate the local population to control the spread of locust.

The provincial government was working in close coordination with the relevant federal entities and the bordering provinces to effectively control the locust outbreak, the PM was informed.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2020