On June 05, 2020, the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) organized a webinar entitled, ‘Sahakar Suraksha: The Locust Issue for Agri–Cooperatives’ to generate awareness on locust incursions in India.

The webinar was streamed live on the Facebook and YouTube page of NCDC India. Shri Dinesh Sharma, Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh was the special guest for the event. The webinar was also attended by senior government officials from relevant departments; FAO’s Senior Locust Forecasting Officer, Keith Cressman; CEOs/Managing Directors of various enterprises; cooperative leaders; and farmers associated with these cooperatives.

Shri Dinesh Sharma, in his special address, informed the audience about the awareness campaign launched by the state government for affected farmers. Further, he mentioned that the state government had deployed vehicle and tractor mounted sprayers, fire engines and drones, as control measures for the locust outbreak in Uttar Pradesh.

In his keynote address, Dr S K Malhotra, Agriculture Commissioner, GoI said, that over 94, 800 hectares of productive land had been affected by locust swarms. He highlighted the fact that the GoI had released advisories for spraying pesticides on crops and undertaken control operations in coordination with relevant state governments. In his address, he underscored the important role of cooperatives in spreading awareness and building capacities of farmers through a range of training programmes.

Mr S.V.S. Ranga Rao, Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Uttar Pradesh added that cooperatives were putting up posters and banners at procurement centers, Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACs) and cooperative banks in an effort to generate greater awareness amongst farmers.

Mr Keith Cressman, Senior Locust Forecasting Officer at FAO, traced the locust incursions to the spring breeding areas in Iran and Pakistan. According to Mr Cressman, due to drying of vegetation in these areas, spring bred locusts started migrating to India towards the end of April. These locusts usually reach western Rajasthan by the end of May for summer breeding.   Since the incursions in India were at least a month ahead of the normal, locusts have spread across and reached Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. Mr Cressman attributed the presence of immature adult swarms in multiples states of north India to the strong winds of cyclone Amphan and forecasted that most of this population will return to Rajasthan, and mature with the onset of monsoons for summer breeding. He advised vigilance along the Pakistan border, as he expected further locust incursions from a population that has been breeding in parts of the Baluchistan and Punjab provinces of Pakistan. Mr Cressman forecasts at least two generations of summer breeding in Rajasthan and parts of northern Gujarat.

Mr Cressman further added that FAO’s Desert Locust Watch is working closely with the Locust Watch Organisation (LWO), MoAFW in India and providing early warning data and information on a regular basis. FAO provides regular data to India, collected through specialized FAO developed applications such as e locust 3m. This information is critical in control operations. It also allows for the country to plan and prepare for locust incursions from other countries and regions.

In conclusion, he stressed that farmers should not be independently spraying pesticides as they lack the protective gear, requisite spraying equipment and the relevant knowhow. Hence, the control operations of the desert locust must be only undertaken by specialized agencies such as the LWO in coordination with the state government equipped with the requisite equipment. The farmers could support this endeavor by digging trenches around crop fields to bury the hoppers and inform the local authorities about the movement of swarms. 

The interactive webinar concluded with Dr S K Malhotra informing that the GoI had cleared the usage of drones and helicopters for control operations in the scheduled desert areas.

The webinar video is available here: https://youtu.be/JKpsRkfo_MA