UAF NEWS

The University of Agriculture Faisalabad has set up a Research and Development Cell on locusts to address the issue that was responsible for loss of billions of rupees to agriculture sector.

UAF Vice Chancellor Dr Muhammad Ashraf chaired a meeting on locust at Meeting room. He said that after the 27 years, it had hit crops at the huge level. He said that to search food, locusts travel in swarms which comprise around 30 to 50 million and can cover a distance of 150 kilometres to devour 200 tonnes of food in a day. He showed his concern that no scientific research had been conducted on the issue so far. He directed the Department to prepare research proposal so that funding could be attained from Higher Education Commission Grant Challenge Fund or international donors. He said that its life history, attacked areas, various stages with day, critical stage to hit for low pesticide, management techniques, potential threats, effect of climate changes, and mitigation strategies would be worked out. He directed the Department to conduct 100 plus students’ internship on the issue in the 36 districts of the Punjab that will be supervised by Dr Jalal Arif and Dr Amir Rasool. He also directed Dr Jalal Arif to conduct a stakeholder meeting on locust and declared Dr Jalal Arif a focal person to give a briefing on locust to the public and media . Dr Jalal Arif said that unfortunate, no proper forecast, monitoring, surveillance and and works were conducted on locust on the issue. He said locust comes from Africa, and traveling through Middle East, Iran, Qatar, Indian Ocean , it reaches Pakistan. He said that it was mandate of FAO as well as Plant Protection Deportment to look into the matter. He said that now, the locust was going back but it has laid intensive eggs that were the potential threats. He said that in 1960, it attacked Pakistan first time and then Plant Protection Department was having 18 planes for surveillance and mitigation measures but now it was having only three planes. Chairman Entomology Dr Mansoor Hassan Sahi said that they had conducted a beefing in Jhang, Mankera, Athara Hazari, Layyah, Khsusab and other areas. He said that they were committed to come up with viable solutions to the issue. All the faculty of Entomology attended the meeting.