NC registers motion in parliament to control locust

2 July  Kathmandu : The major opposition Nepali Congress has registered a motion at the House of Representatives to control and prevent the damage caused by locust. The motion was presented to make the government aware and press it reasoning that it did not pay heed on time to control the locust invasion.

NC lawmaker Dr Dila Sangraula, Padma Narayan Chaudhary and Mina Subba took the permission to present a resolution relating to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development and demanded the federal government to effectively mobilize three layers of governments in coordination with local farmers and agriculture experts to prevent the damage. A special programme must be launched, they stressed.

Massive awareness among the farmers is equally important. The damage needs to be assessed and the farmers provided compensation. Proper insecticides must be distributed to the farmers, Dr Sangraula opined. The swarms of invasive insect locust have spread to some 52 districts upto the mountainous across the country.

Makwanpur, Chitwan, Rupandehi, Kapilvastu, Syangja, Dang, Pyuthan, Panchthar, Kaski, Kailali, Sindhuli are suffering worst with locust invasion. Makwanpur alone has seen the swarm of some 1 million locusts eating up maize crops cultivated in 1,000 ropanis of land.
The Kathmandu Valley also witnessed the swarm of locusts on Tuesday.

Lalitpur district first spotted the invasive insect in the valley. The motion has stated that the locusts will cause more damage than that caused by fall army worm. If the timely intervention is not taken, huge damage is sure in agriculture, thereby causing impacts on other sectors.