Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan recently declared a national emergency in response to swarms of desert locusts in the areas of south and upper Punjab. The locusts, believed to have arrived from Iran in June, have ravaged cotton, wheat, maize and other crops. A favourable weather and delayed response have reportedly helped them breed and attack crop areas.

The locust swarms are currently on the Pakistan-India border and were previously in Sindh and Balochistan. Their potential for large-scale destruction is raising fears of food insecurity, according to a report in a Pakistani newspaper.

"We are facing the worst locust infestation in more than two decades and have decided to declare a national emergency to deal with the threat," Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said.

The government will take all possible steps and provide required facilities to protect crops from any possible danger, Khan said. The last time Pakistan saw a serious threat of locusts was in 1993.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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