DUSHANBE, June 23, 2011, Asia-Plus — The main threat of infestation of agricultural fields and pastures with locust has been removed as major part of farmland has been treated, Qiyomiddin Ghaniyev, head of the state unitary enterprise, Locust Control, Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) said. “Besides, the incubation period of the Moroccan Locust is over,” he noted.
According to him, locusts have been reported on 153,100 hectares of lands in the country this year; 130,800 hectares of that area have already been treated.
“To-date, locusts have been destroyed in Khatlon province and districts subordinate to the center and just several breeding places for locusts remain in Sughd province,” the Locust Control head said, noting that they have sent additional insecticides and other chemical compounds to Sughd.
On the situation in the border areas, Ghaniyev said that this year, there were no problems in areas bordering Uzbekistan because joint land treatment operations were carried out. “However, there are problems in areas bordering Afghanistan because the Afghan side does not take adequate measures to combat locust infestations.”
Tajikistan last year adopted the national pest control program for 2011-2015 and 3.8 million somoni have been allocated this year to combat locust infestations.
We will recall that the “Technical Workshop on Locust Control (Caucasus and Central Asia)” took place in Dushanbe on October 18-22, 2010. It was organized in the framework of the FAO regional project, Improving Management of Migratory and other Locusts in the Caucasus and Central Asia. The following countries participated in the Technical Workshop: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Russia, the latest attending as an observer. Each country provided locust forecast and information on funds’ availability and campaign management for the next campaign. Most countries indicated that the 2011 locust situation would be similar to that in 2010.
In Tajikistan, in 2010, the area surveyed against locusts was of 275,000 ha, out of which 105,080 ha were infested. The total treated area was of 81,724 ha, which is somewhat lower than in 2008 (107,712 ha) and 2009 (93,286 ha). Control operations were carried out against the Moroccan Locust on 73,550 ha and against the Italian Locust on 8,174 ha. By administrative division, the treated areas were the following: Khatlon province – 49,950 ha; Sughd province – 22,889 ha; districts subordinate to the center – 12,585 ha; and Gorno Badakhshan –300 ha. There were cases of Moroccan Locust flights from Afghanistan into Qumsangir district, Khatlon province and from Uzbekistan into Zafarobod district, Sughd province.
During autumn 2010, a total of 235,600 ha were surveyed against locusts, out of which 86,100 ha in Sughd province, 103,000 ha in Khatlon province, and 46,500 ha in districts subordinate to the center. Locust egg-pods were found on 161,700 ha at the following densities: below 1/sq.m on 7,100 ha; 2/sq.m on 7,100 ha; 3-5/sq.m on 42,500 ha; 5-10/sq.m on 40,500 ha; 10-20/sq.m on 31,700 ha; and >20/sq.m on 12,100 ha.
