Iran has called in its military to help fight locusts that have invaded the south of the country, threatening to destroy crops worth billions of dollars, according to Iranian media reports.
Mohammad Reza Mir, a spokesman for the ministry’s Plant Protection Organization (PPO), said the desert locusts had attacked more than 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) of orchards and farmland in seven of Iran’s 31 provinces, the semi-official news agency ILNA reported.
Locust plague in southern #Iran.
This happened in Egypt too, thousands of years ago, when Pharaoh messed with the God of Israel. pic.twitter.com/neY5f7yOgE
— Hananya Naftali (@HananyaNaftali) May 18, 2020
The affected areas, stretching from eastern Iran on the border with Pakistan to the southwestern border with Iraq, were likely to soon increase to 1 million hectares, Mir told ILNA.
“The military have promised to help fight the desert locusts, including by providing all-terrain vehicles for use in areas which are hard to access,” Mir told ILNA. “Last year the military provided personnel and vehicles, and that was a big help.”
Mir said anti-locust operations had so far prevented “any damage”, without giving details.
Did you know 1km2 of desert #locusts can eat the same food as 35,000 people?
For more information on the crisis👉 https://t.co/dbLcsQV2Bv#DesertLocust #foodsecurity pic.twitter.com/dXZSNoA46d
— FAO Iran (@FAOIran) May 17, 2020
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