Locusts outbreak expected in Kazakhstan

A significant increase of the number of locusts is expected in Kazakhstan this year, Tengrinews.kz reports citing the press-service of Kazakhstan Agriculture Ministry. “According to forecasts, we are expecting a significant increase in the population of locusts at the area of 3 million hectares this year,” the press-service writes. The state agriculture inspection is taking necessary measures to harness the threat. Insecticides have already been dispatched to the threatened areas for treatment of over 2 million hectares of fields. Over 1.8 billion tenge ($12 million) have been allocated from the state budget for procurement of pesticides and chemical treatment of the lands. Additional examiners will be dispatched to locust-prone areas of Aktobe, West-Kazakhstan and Kostanay oblasts to check on the population of the hazardous insects. Special headquarters for countering locust will be created in each of the three oblasts. Additional 116 million tenge ($773 thousand) have been allocated for this purpose. Besides, the Agriculture Ministry of Kazakhstan is raising the issue of countering so-called non-gregarious locusts that are causing almost the same damage as the gregarious ones. This year’s forecast for the spread of non-gregarious locusts is that they will covers the area of 578 thousand hectares. “Countering of this kind of locusts is not funded from the state budget. Oblast administrations were instructed to take timely measures to countering non-gregarious locusts at the expense of the local budgets and local agricultural producers,” the message states. 67 thousand hectares of lands in Almaty and West-Kazakhstan oblast have already been treated so far. Treatment against Morocco locusts has been completed in Zhambyl oblast and is close to completion in South-Kazakhstan oblast, the Ministry reported. 120 thousand hectares have been treated against Italian locust in Almaty, Zhambyl, West-Kazakhstan, Atyrau and Aktobe oblasts. Treatment against Asian locusts has started in Atyrau oblast with 1,000 hectares treated so far. Development and spread of locusts are cyclic and repeat themselves every 10 years, the Ministry said. The last outbreak of locusts happened in 2000 when their spread area exceeded 8 million hectares. The areas decreased to 505.4 thousand hectares in 2004. However, there has been a gradual increase starting from 2005.