In southern Tajikistan, locusts have attacked mountain pastures. The farmers fear that insects will soon descend into the valleys and destroy their crops. The experts believe it is necessary to kill the locusts using biopesticides.
Isomiddin, a farmer from the Mash’al jamoat of the Vakhsh district, said that the locusts destroyed the grass in the mountains and hills and left the livestock without food.
“Locusts attack everything, the mountains are left without grass. Now, the locusts have grown. If they are not killed, they will move on to farmland to feed themselves,” he said.
Eshburi, a shepherd from the Jaloliddin Balkhi district, says locusts have cleared the mountains to the point that there is no grass left for their sheep.
“There are lots of locusts this year, they destroyed all the grass. Our livestock is starving and we are suffering,” says the shepherd.
The Department of Agriculture of the Khatlon region reported that farmers spray chemicals to kill insects where they appear. However, it is not clear yet whether chemicals will be able to completely kill the locusts or not.
Farmers say that the authorities failed to clear pastures of these insects last year and some districts were seriously affected.
Guldasta (not her real name), a farmer from the Santuda jamoat in the Dangara district, says that the farm she heads suffered losses of about 20 thousand somoni (about $1,850) from locust attacks last year.
Then, the locusts completely destroyed the farm’s crops and farmers had to replant everything again.
“This year, we have already sowed our land again and I do not know what will happen next. I ask to kill these locusts so that we are no longer affected,” she says.
Farmers say that once locusts descend from the mountains onto cultivated land, they are difficult to control. Once they grow and start to fly, it is impossible to kill them.
“Locusts must be killed as soon as they hatch. It is difficult to kill them when they grow up. We spray them ourselves [with poison] but it does not help,” says Guldasta.
Saidnabi, another farmer from the Vakhsh district, said that last year, a locust invasion caused him damage worth about 15 thousand somoni (about $1,400).
“I replanted the cotton three times. They destroyed the crops,” says Saidnabi.
Another experienced farmer from the Ozodagon jamoat of the Pyanj district Abdurashid told CABAR.asia that they have been suffering from this problem for about ten years.
According to him, locusts from the mountains and hills attack people’s farms and agricultural lands in mid-May.
“If it is not stopped, it can harm us. Locusts have been tormenting us for more than 10 years,” he said.
The locust invasion is mainly observed in the south: in the Pyanj, Farkhor, Vakhsh, Kushoniyon, Khuroson, Jalolidin Balkhi districts, Shakhritus, Dangara districts, and some parts of the Levakant city.
Khatlon region is one of the largest agricultural regions of Tajikistan, which supplies most of the country with agricultural products. However, most farmers living in mountainous regions fear that locusts could completely destroy their crops this year.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, locust swarms have been recorded on an area of 44 thousand hectares of land; more than 27 thousand hectares have been sprayed with chemicals. It was reported that 24 spraying tractors, 11 vehicles, 788 manual and motorised sprayers, and 975 people are working on chemical spraying of land and locust extermination.
An organisation titled the “Locust Control Expedition” deals with the problems of fighting locust invasions in the country. In the Khatlon region, this responsibility is assigned to the Department for Locust Control under the regional khukumat [local government body – Tr.].
Moroccan locusts live in the mountains and hills of the Khatlon region. They lay 30 to 60 eggs at a time.
Shodi Musozoda, head of the Khatlon region’s Department for Locust Control, refused to tell the total area of damaged land and said locust control was ongoing.
In the Pyanj district alone, 11.1 thousand hectares of land were invaded by locusts. Sijouddin Saidov, an employee of the Department of Agriculture of this district, told CABAR.asia that they, with the help of local residents and tractors, are spraying chemicals in the hills and mountains of the district so that the locusts do not attack farms.
The head of the Department of Agriculture of the Vakhsh district Kayum Alimov told CABAR.asia that the area affected by locusts was 25 thousand hectares in this district. CABAR.asia was told that 6.5 thousand hectares of land were affected by locusts in Jaloliddin Balkhi district.
One of the employees of the Khatlon region’s Department for Locust Control told CABAR.asia that last year, there were noticeably fewer locusts than now. In some areas, agriculture department officials were mobilised to exterminate locusts.
It Is Impossible to Kill Locusts Just by Spraying!
Said Safarov, an agricultural expert, says that last year, the authorities did not pay enough attention to the problem of disinfection and fighting locusts, which is why there are more of them this year.
“It is necessary to kill locusts when they hatch, in the first stage, before they start to fly. After three days, they begin to move,” Said Safarov told CABAR.asia.
According to him, it is necessary to disinfect the places where locusts lay eggs and carry out other procedures during fall. Now, according to Said Safarov, the necessary agrotechnical work is not being carried out before chemical spraying. In particular, it is necessary to plough the land before these procedures.
“Now, the locusts are in the mating phase. In a few days, they will begin to lay eggs, from which insects will hatch next year. There are problems with how the land is cleared of locusts. We do not have specialists who could find locusts in the fall and kill them,” Safarov says.
Said Safarov said that locusts are harmful insects. Their extermination does not harm the environment but an increase in the number of locusts can destroy the rare plants of the mountains.
The expert believes that the other countries’ experience in fighting locusts with biopesticides should be used.
Another expert Sukhrob Safariyon agrees with him and says that it is impossible to completely exterminate locusts just by spraying. He believes that it is not yet possible to consider the complete extermination of locusts in invaded areas because methods of fighting them have not been properly developed.
“In some areas, the chemicals are not sprayed well and the locusts do not die. To get rid of them completely, we need to hire good specialists, plough up the places where the locusts lay eggs, and spray them several times, not just once,” he says.