Amid devastating attacks from locusts, Pakistan received emergency first aid from China on Monday. Under the plan to help Pakistan cope with its locust disaster, Beijing would provide insecticide and high-efficiency remote sprayers as well as other control materials for free.
50 tons of pesticide, 14 sets of high efficiency sprayers to control #locust, and 12000 test kits for #cononavirus have been unloaded from the chartered cargo plane from #China and handed over to Pakistan officials. Hope these will give a big hand to our iron brother Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/PqOxm0OZSL
— libijian (@libijian2) March 9, 2020
The first batch of emergency aid consisted of 50,000 litres of malathion (insecticide) and 14 high-efficiency remote sprayers.
A team of experts from China visited locust-affected regions such as Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab from 23 February to 4 March to take account of the damage.
WATCH: Pakistan struggles to combat devastating locust plague
— Rappler (@rapplerdotcom) March 6, 2020
Heavy rains and cyclones spark 'unprecedented' breeding and the explosive growth of locust populations on the Arabian peninsula early last year, according to the United Nations
Full story: https://t.co/kzV7WBbQ3K pic.twitter.com/bQfuYJJ9fE
Following the Chinese help, Pakistan is moving to put forward a plan with other countries as well to deal with the locust invasion.
The agriculture ministers of Pakistan, India, Iran and Afghanistan will be chalking out a strategy to deal with the locust attack on March 11 via video-conference, Pakistan news website The Tribune reported.
The representatives of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) will be also participating in the videoconference.
The recent rains in different countries have made for a favourable breeding environment, and have been blamed for the increase in the locust population.
