Mian Anjum Nisar, President and Sheikh Sultan Rehman, Vice President Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) urged government to take immediate measures to control the Locust swarm attack in Pakistan which is causing severe damage to the crops in the country.

The desert locusts arrived in Pakistan in the mid of 2019, and have already destroyed thousand hectares of cultivated land. Currently 61 districts across the country are under the locust attack which is severely damaging the cultivated land in those areas. The potential of locust swarms attacks for large-scale destruction is not only raising serious concern on food security in the country but will also affect the agriculture and textile industry in Pakistan. Damaged cultivated lands will result the shortfall in the supply of cotton, wheat, sugarcane, orchids, vegetable crops etc. which will affect the production capacity of the textile and agriculture products in the country.

They also stated that agriculture sector and textile industry of Pakistan are the labor intensive sectors, destruction of these crops due to locust attacks will directly affect a large portion of our population whose livelihood depends on the agriculture on one hand, and the labors associated with the textile industry on the other hand.

President FPCCI proposed that the federal and provincial governments need to take strong and immediate actions to control over the locust attack as well as provide support and relief to the affected farmers and labors.