KARACHI:The Sindh government has canceled the leaves of all agriculture department officers and employees to combat locusts.
Sindh Minister for Agriculture, Ismail Rahu, said that in view of the massive predicted rains in Sindh, the leaves of department’s all agriculture officers had been canceled so as to tackle locusts.
He said that due to the rains, locusts could damage the crops in the desert areas, therefore, the Sindh government had launched a spray campaign in the affected crops. In 24 hours, the spraying of 8448 hectares in 12 affected districts of the province has eliminated the locusts, he said.
Rahu said that spray had been conducted in Badin, Ghotki, Khairpur, Sanghar, Naushehro Feroz, Sukkur, Shaheed Benazirabad, Kashmore, Tando Allahyar, Matiari, Dadu, and Jamshoro. “The people of Sindh are waiting to know when the federal government will take practical steps to eliminate the locusts,” he noted.
The minister said: ‘Agriculture teams are working day and night to eliminate locusts and surveys and monitoring are also being conducted.”