Swarms of desert locust have been spotted in the southern provinces of Bushehr, Hormozgan and Fars by the Plant Protection Organization’s watch teams since Feb. 19, according to the spokesman of the organization, which is affiliated with the Agriculture Ministry.
“The pest has so far been fought on over 7,500 hectares of land,” Mohammad Reza Mir was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
The official said that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has warned that this year, locust infestations will be more severe compared with last year.
In southern Iran, breeding conditions were favorable some two months earlier than normal due to unusual winter rains, green vegetation and above-normal temperatures, FAO wrote in its January Desert Locust Bulletin.
The FAO report added that this was supplemented by unusually heavy rains that fell along most of the southern coast during the first two decades of the month, including flooding in coastal and interior areas of Sistan-Baluchestan Province in the southeast.
Some areas received their entire annual rainfall in a single day. This should allow breeding conditions to remain favorable for two generations of breeding.
Based on FAO’s report, several adult groups and swarms laid eggs on the southeast coast of Hormozgan Province.
FAO forecasts that hatching and band formations are likely to occur in coastal areas of Hormozgan that is likely to give rise to immature swarms starting in March. Breeding will occur, it went on to say, in coastal and interior areas of recent flooding in Sistan-Baluchestan that could potentially cause a dramatic increase in locust numbers.
Mir said pesticides, equipment and vehicles required to fight the pest have been prepared and the Plant Protection Organization is ready for the battle.
“Based on FAO’s warnings that this year’s infestation will be severe, we predict that we need to fight the pest on around 1 million hectares of land this time,” he said.
The first generation of desert locusts attacked Iran a year ago. FAO alerted Iran of probable locust attacks on Jan. 21, 2019, IRNA reported.
Mohammad Reza Dargahi, the head of Plant Protection Organization, said that during the previous locust attack, the organization battled the pest across 750,000 hectares of land.
Iran’s southern, southeastern and southwestern provinces of Hormozgan, Sistan-Baluchestan, Khuzestan, Bushehr, Fars, Kerman, Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad, South Khorasan and Ilam were swarmed by desert locusts in April.
The desert locust is among the most dangerous pests, as they destroy all greenery, including grains, fodder, vegetables, tree barks and even weeds, on their path.
The pest has attacked Iran’s farms in the fiscal 1963-64 and 1993-94. The former caused heavy damage to the country’s farms and agricultural production.
The pest is indigenous to Saudi Arabia, Morocco and African countries, and enters Iran by crossing the Persian Gulf.
