Amid the tragedy they are facing with the coronavirus outbreak, Chinese experts are now exploring their available options when it comes to help Pakistan combat one of the worst locust infestations that they have seen in 20 years.
According to BBC, one of the potential methods that they are looking into is sending approximately 100,000 ducks to combat the swarms. The ducks will come from Zhejiang Province, China and will be sent to the South Asian country.
On a statement released to Bloomberg, senior researcher from Zhejian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lu Lizhi, referred to the duck as "biological weapons," also stating that they may be more effective in fighting the pests that pesticides.
Furthermore, he added that one duck can eat more than 200 locusts a day and that they will be conducting trials with the birds in the western Xinjiang province before giving a confirmation if they will be able to send the ducks.
In 2000, the same method was used by China to battle the locust infestation in Xinjiang province. They shipped 30,000 ducks from Zhejiang to chew on the locusts before they can devour more crops.
However, even if the method has worked in the past a researcher has expressed skepticism about the capability of the ducks to fight off the swarms in Pakistan.
Professor Zhang Log of China Agricultural University expressed that the deployment of ducks is unlikely to happen since the birds may not be suited for the conditions in Pakistan. He expressed his doubts that the birds may not thrive in the deserts of Pakistan since ducks mainly rely on water.
Zhang is a part of the team of the Chinese experts that were deployed in Pakistan to do an evaluation of the situation and possibly develop a solution to the country's locust problem. Instead of using the ducks, he suggested that chemical or biological pesticides need to be used to fight off the pests.
Pakistan's government has already declared a National Emergency earlier this year as a response to the growing locust infestations.
According to DW, Pakistan's Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said in January that they are facing the worst locust infestation in more than two decades and that in order to deal with the threat they have decided that declaring a national emergency is the way to go.
It was also stated that the locusts arrived in Pakistan in June of 2019 and have been feeding on the crops and growing in number since then. Hence, food insecurity is an impending problem.
Aside from Pakistan, other East African countries are also experiencing infestation of locusts swarms which triggered the United Nations to issue an international call for help in January to help battle the pests.
The UN further added that the pestilence of the insects is a consequence of the cyclone season in 2018 and 2019 that caused heavy rain in the Arabian Peninsula, claiming that the rains have caused "unprecedented breeding" of up to three generations of the crop-devouring pests.
Related news: Locust Swarms Continue to Devastate Africa, Moves Next to South Sudan
