Drones will be used to spray pesticides on tall trees and inaccessible places for effective control of locusts

Union Agricultural Minister Narendra Singh Tomar held a meeting with both the Ministers of State for Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare Parshottam Rupala and Kailash Choudhary and Secretary (DAC&FW) Sanjay Agarwal to review the Locust Control Operations. The locust attacks have come at a time when India is already battling with the COVID-19 crisis.

 To ensure adequate machines are made available to states for effective control of the swarms, the minister said, “15 sprayers will start arriving from Britain in the next 15 days.Besides, 45 more sprayers will be procured in a month or one-and-a-half months.”

Use of drones and helicopters 

 “Drones will be used to spray pesticides on tall trees and inaccessible places for effective control of locusts, while plans are afoot to deploy helicopters for aerial spray. Already, two firms have been finalized through tender for use of the drones for spraying pesticides”, he added.

 A committee under the chairmanship of the Additional Secretary of the Agriculture Department has been constituted to procure services and goods for spraying insecticides through drones and airplanes.

Regional Control rooms 

Tomar further said 11 Regional Control Rooms have been established and special contingents have been deployed along with additional manpower to check the spread of locusts.He assured the affected states will be allocated additional resources and financial aid if required.

Meanwhile, the Union Agriculture Ministry said that supply order for procurement of additional 55 vehicles has been placed to strengthen the control potential. Adequate stock of pesticide is being maintained (53,000 litres Malathion) with Locust Control Organizations.

 No new entry of locust swarm

According to the Ministry, there was no new entry of locust swarm on Thursday but on May 26 a locust swarm had entered from Sri Ganganagar district of Rajasthan and control operation was going on against these swarms.

Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agarwal said currently 47 spray equipment in Locust Control Offices (LCOs) are being used for locust control and 200 officials are deployed.

Beyond scheduled desert areas, temporary control camps have also been set up at Jaipur, Chittorgarh, Dausa in Rajasthan; Sheopur, Neemuch, Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh and Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh for locust control. Locust has been controlled in an area of about 50,468 hectares in 334 locations in Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

Locust Control Operation

Locust control operations have been undertaken every day in the morning hours with the help of control spray vehicles, tractor mounted sprayers and fire brigade vehicles under the supervision of concerned district authorities and officials of the State Agriculture Department.

The Rajasthan government has deployed 778 tractors and 50 fire brigade vehicles, Madhya Pradesh – 72 tractors and 38 fire brigade vehicles, Uttar Pradesh deployed 6 tractors and Punjab deployed 50 tractors and 6 fire brigade vehicles for locust control.

Presently, pink swarms of immature adults are being reported in India which is very active and mobile and it is difficult to control them in one place.

It takes at least 4 to 5 days of control at different locations for the complete elimination of the locust population in one flock. Enough stock of pesticides is available with the locust control organization, the statement said.