The Hindu Business Line : No immediate threat of locust attack: Krishi Bhawan

The Centre has ruled out any threat for now to the country’s kharif crop from locust migration from Africa to the sub-continent. This follows a locust warning issued on June 27 by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The FAO advisory has stated that locust swarms were seen in north-eastern Somalia, with the possibility of these arriving in Pakistan and Rajasthan in the next seven to 10 days.

Vigil

“So far, only scattered and localised presence of locust has been reported from Gujarat. No reports of locust spotting have been received from Rajasthan”, a Union Agriculture Ministry release stated here on Thursday.

The release said that the Centre had, on receiving the FAO’s high alert, had advised the State Governments concerned to keep a constant vigil.

Surveys

The Ministry and the Locust Unit of the Directorate of Plant Protection & Quarantine are in constant touch with the Gujarat, Rajasthan and Punjab Government. The field units of Locust Warning Organisation of India (LWO) located in Gujarat and Rajasthan have also been alerted and instructed to intensify surveys to detect any locust movement in coastal areas of Gujarat and the scheduled desert areas of Rajasthan.

Already joint teams from the LWO and the Gujarat Government have till July 3 surveyed 125 villages in Kutch district.

“The surveillance teams initially found small population of locust in about 100 ha. in Lakhpat Taluk of Kutch district, which is about 1.5 k.m. inside from the coastline.

On further survey, they located locust population over a strip of area, covering the villages of Nanicher, Shilpar and Angarpura villages of Lakhpat”, the release adds.