Locusts under control: Kazakhstan strengthens phytosanitary measures

 

The Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and regional authorities have begun to create commissions for the operational fight against the spread of locusts and phytosanitary measures. This decision was made at a meeting held May 13 and chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Serik Zhumangarin.

 

The main months for carrying out works on land treatment against locusts are May and June, when mass hatching of larvae begins. Vice Minister of Agriculture Azat Sultanov said that comprehensive anti-locust operations will start from May 20 in the south and west of the country, and from May 30 in the north, east and center, when the air temperature reaches +25-30 degrees Celsius. A stock of pesticides is already available to treat 2.46 million hectares of land, while the total requirement is 2.5 million hectares. Contracts for the chemical treatment of 1.9 million hectares have already been signed, while bidding procedures are ongoing for the remaining areas. Treatment equipment is distributed across the regions and pesticides are delivered from warehouses as needed.

 

Turkestan region since April 16 started active work on cleaning of territories from especially dangerous Moroccan locust. Already 88% of the planned 272 thousand hectares have been treated, which is 240.3 thousand hectares. Ground and air equipment is used for chemical treatment.

 

Minister of Agriculture Aidarbek Saparov noted the importance of active use of all available monitoring tools to accurately determine the places of locust larvae deposition. He emphasized that due to the upcoming mass spread of insects on an area of 2.5 million hectares, monitoring is conducted not only by traditional methods, but also with the use of drones, which speeds up the process by 5-10 times.

 

The meeting also discussed the situation in the border areas, where agricultural departments of neighboring countries conduct joint monitoring. Deputy Prime Minister Zhumangarin stressed that the main goal of all measures taken is to prevent the possibility of locusts to take to the wing, and for this purpose it is necessary to move away from a formal approach, mobilize all resources, including manpower, for thorough research and spot treatment of lands.