Locust attack: China to help Pakistan with effective pest control system

China on Monday said it would help Pakistan to establish an effective pest control system to deal with the severe locust problem in the country.

Pakistan, which is facing its worst locust attack in decades, on February 1 declared national emergency to tackle the insects destroying crops on a large scale in Punjab province, country's main region for agricultural production.

Pakistan is suffering from a severe locust plague. In order to help Pakistan, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs have put together a task force which travelled to Pakistan from February 23 to March 5, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told media here.

He said the Chinese experts had an exchange with the relevant authorities in Pakistan and put forward plans to tackle the situation.

Considering the urgency, China has also sent emergency supplies and equipment. The first batch of these supplies arrived in Pakistan this morning (Monday). China and Pakistan have a good tradition of mutual assistance, he said.

China transported a batch of locust control materials to Pakistan, including 50,000 litres of pesticides and 15 high-powered spraying equipment, he said.

In accordance with the need of Pakistan, we will provide as much assistance as possible in personnel training, technical safeguard and share our experience to help them build and improve their pest control systems and thereby deal with this biological disaster. We will continue to help Pakistan in combating this epidemic, he said.

Also, a new batch of coronavirus test kits were sent on the same plane that transported locust supplies to Pakistan, he said.