"The use of ducks to control locusts is an exploratory topic made by some Chinese experts and has not yet entered the government assistance program," the China Locust Control Working Group clarified during a press conference in Karachi, Pakistan.
As Pakistan's locusts are raging, some Chinese experts recommend sending a large army of ducks to Pakistan to "destroy locusts". In this regard, the working group believes that this is not a suitable technology for local adoption.
According to CCTV reports, Zhang Long, a member of the China Locust Disaster Control Working Group and a professor at China Agricultural University, said that since ancient times, there have been methods for herding ducks to control locusts in China.
In the current large-scale outbreak of locust plague in Pakistan, the expert group recommended the use of some emergency measures, such as the use of chemical pesticide treatment and microbial pesticides and other biological control measures.
At present, the relatively mature microbial pesticides include microsporidia and Metarhizium anisopliae, which is a fast and effective method for controlling locust disasters by large-scale spraying with aircraft.
Wang Fengle, the leader of the China Locust Disaster Control Working Group and the chief expert of the National Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center, said that using ducks to control locusts is an exploratory topic made by some Chinese experts and has not yet entered the government assistance program.
On February 26, Lu Lizhi, a researcher at the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, introduced the "Ningbo Evening News" that biological control of locust disasters would not pollute the environment and repair the biological chain.
Among them, the "chicken and duck legion" is even better, and "ducks like to live in groups, and it is easier to manage than chickens." The locust-eating ability is three times that of chickens.
However, Lu Lizhi also emphasized that before sending the "ducks", they should formulate the "Technical Specifications for the Control of Locust Ducks" to study the season of locusts, their density, and the impact on duck meat.
In addition to harvesting China's help, Pakistan is also studying other countermeasures to deal with the worst locust plague since 1993. On February 1, the Pakistani government declared a state of emergency in response to the locust plague.
Since invading Pakistan last year, locusts have destroyed local cotton crops in the previous planting season and are now threatening wheat crops.
Although Pakistan's trade relationship with India dropped to freezing points last August after India revised its provisions on Kashmir 's special status, in order to curb the locust plague, Pakistan is considering providing a one-time exemption for pesticide imports from India.
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