Lucknow/Bhopal: Agriculture departments of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are working on how they can keep swarms of locusts at bay. It has arrived in Malhargarh area of Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur district on Sunday. In UP, locusts have damaged crops in Jhansi, Lalitpur and Hamirpur districts and 15 more districts such as Agra, Aligarh, Mathura, Firozabad and Etawah are under threat.
“Scientists from central locust team and agricultural science department conducted an exercise and removed around 60 per cent of them by spraying,” said Manoj Pushp, Mandsaur District Magistrate. Uttar Pradesh Agriculture Department on Sunday informed Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and bordering districts of the State about the possibility of locust attack and asked them to take preventive steps accordingly.
“It said that at the point of the attack by the locusts, the farmers should make noise by playing the drums, plates, etc. “The farmers can also spray the recommended agricultural defence chemicals like tractor mounted sprayers, power sprayers, etc,” adds the statement.
During the current year, locust swarms have entered India earlier than their normal time of June and July. States are adopting various means to control the swarm of locust,” said Spokesperson, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Sugarcane commissioner, Sanjay R Bhoosreddy, who is coordinating anti-locust activities in Uttar Pradesh said all necessary protective measures were being be taken to protect sugarcane crop. The administration has also appealed to the sugarcane farmers to closely monitor the locust outbreaks while visiting their fields, If Locust are seen in sugarcane crop, spray them immediately with insecticides such as chlorpyrifos 20 percent EC, chlorpyrifos 50 percent EC, Bundiomethrin, Fipronil, and Lambda.
Meanwhile, to deal with a common enemy, India has proposed a coordinated response to tackle Desert Locust along the border to Pakistan and also offered to facilitate the supply of insecticide Malathion to Islamabad for the same.
This comes amid nationwide lockdown imposed as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of COVID-19.
(With ANI Inputs)
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