Climate change as a result of unsustainable anthropogenic practices is undoubtedly the biggest global issue currently faced by humanity. As greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, the effects of global warming and climate change are steadily becoming more pronounced. The rise in sea levels, melting of polar ice caps and glaciers, changes in weather patterns and loss of biodiversity are just some of the impacts of this phenomenon. One of the effects of climate change specific to East Africa and South Asia is annual locust attacks.
According to an article published in Mongaby in June 2020, the rising temperature of the Indian Ocean is one of the main reasons for the invasion of locusts in the Horn of Africa and the Subcontinent. According to National Geographic, locusts consume leaves, often eating dry plant matter on the ground. Locust swarms first entered Pakistan from neighbouring Iran in the summer of 2019 quickly destroyed large areas of agricultural land across southwestern districts, ravaging cotton, wheat, maize and other crops, outlined Atika Rehman in the Dawn Newspaper in May 2020. They began to gradually eat away at everything in cultivated lands, thriving on the vegetation.
The low yield in 2019 led to increased wheat and food grain prices, resulting in additional pressure on the government. The Government of Pakistan’s estimate of monetary losses due to locusts for the agricultural seasons of 2020 and 2021 ranged from $3.4 to $10.21 billion. They also predicted that more than 3 million people would face severe acute food insecurity due to the attacks.
Erratic weather linked to climate change has created ideal conditions for the insects to surge in number.
Climate scientists state that erratic weather linked to climate change has created ideal conditions for the insects to surge in number. Pakistan’s southern climate is the perfect breeding ground for the desert locusts and the entire country may be under threat of invasion if they are not contained within breeding regions. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) also warned of an impending infestation that can lead to a major threat to food security.
During the attacks in 2020, the Department of Plant Protection (DPP) at Pakistan’s Ministry of National Food Security and Research assured the public that the government purchased enough chemical pesticides and spraying equipment to tackle the issue. The Ministry also approved a three-year comprehensive project of $200 million to control the insects.
However, in response to the negative impact of pesticides on plants, humans and the environment as a whole, eccentrics urged the government to switch to more sustainable, environmentally-friendly solutions. A pilot project was put forth in Okara, which offered a way to curb the pests without using harmful insecticides. The sustainable solution entails farmers earning money by trapping locusts and transforming them into high-protein chicken feed through animal feed mills. The community’s locust haul averaged seven tons a night and farmers netted up to PKR 20,000 per person for one night’s work.
This innovative idea could easily be scaled up in populated rural areas. 300,000 tons of soya bean are currently imported and crushed to be used in animal feed whereas the processing cost of drying and milling locusts is only PKR 30. Therefore, there are substantial potential foreign exchange savings. In the long run, this solution seems to be one of the most easily implementable, sustainable and beneficial for the community.
Others advocate for more effective solutions to the pests such as mass netting, the development and use of natural pesticides or the use of biopesticides made from fungi. However, each solution has limitations. For example, some insecticides lose their efficacy in high temperatures. Climate experts claim that biological control and the use of biopesticides is essential in the future. Fortunately, the DPP has begun work on this issue by nominating provincial coordinators to test the efficacy of potential entomopathogenic fungi against desert locusts in Pakistan.
The writer is a student.