WITH all eyes on the coronavirus outbreak, little has been done to deal with another emergency — the locust plague — which has been threatening the nation’s food security and the livelihoods of millions of farmers for over a year now. In spite of the warnings issued by the Food and Agriculture Organisation, as well as repeated calls for help from the farmers ever since the crop-eating pests entered Pakistan via Iran in summer last year, the government has done little to control the infestation. Farmers have mostly been left to their own devices to tackle the swarms using conventional means. The government quite belatedly declared a locust emergency in February this year. Nonetheless, no effective measures have been implemented to destroy the infestations. The decision to push the Plant Protection Department into the background and assign the responsibility of tackling the menace to the National Disaster Management Authority hasn’t helped either. It has actually led to delays in the decision-making process. For example, the government has only recently decided to purchase new dusters for aerial pesticide spray. Now it plans to lease aircraft for aerial spray as the new dusters will take a few months to reach the country.

Sindh has once again asked the federal government — plant protection is a federal subject — to provide it with 100 vehicles and aircraft it had committed for combating the locusts in the province before the new generation of insects matures and finds its way here in the coming days and weeks. However, chances of any help reaching Sindh soon appear thin given the federal authorities’ past record. Indeed, the plague had caught the government unprepared as the current locust attack is the worst in 30 years. But the government cannot use this pretext as an excuse for its slow response to the scourge. It has had enough time to get ready for the battle, not just for the current round but also for the future. The fast-changing climate is feared to increase the frequency of locust invasions at the cost of food security and livelihoods. While the coronavirus appears to be retreating at the moment — at least for now — the maturing pests in Sindh’s deserts are growing wings for a fresh assault on green fields and the livelihoods of poor farmers. Imagine what will happen if local locust infestations are joined by the swarms expected to reach here from the Horn of Africa in the next week or so.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2020