New Delhi: Aimed at providing quick relief to farmers from sudden Locust invasion, Locust Control Offices (LCOs) on 29th May conducted control operations at 10 locations in districts of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. While in Rajasthan, the districts of Jaipur, Dausa, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Barmer, Chittorgarh, and Sri Ganganagar were taken care of, in Madhya Pradesh, the districts of Niwari and Shivpuri were covered under control measures. State Department of Agriculture, Madhya Pradesh has also undertaken control operations at 5 locations located one each in districts of Satna, Balaghat, Niwari, Raisen and Shivpuri. As per the Agriculture Ministry, no crop loss has been reported so far.

As on 28th May, 2020 a total of 377 spots covering 53,997 hectares has been covered since Locust control operations started from 11th April, 2020. Districts covered by locust control are -  Rajasthan – 22, MP – 24, Gujarat – 2, Punjab – 1, UP – 2, Maharashtra -3.

This was revealed in a Video Conference organized under the chairmanship of Secretary-Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Mr Sanjay Agarwal with Principal Secretary (Agriculture) of all the states and UTs. In this meeting, all the states and UTs were informed about the latest status and control of locust attack. After this VC, an advisory has been issued in respect of locust to all the states/UTs and related SOPs has been shared.

On 27th May, a letter was issued by the Union Home Secretary to the Chief Secretaries of all the states and UTs giving necessary instructions to streamline the inter-state movement facility for the personnel engaged in locust control works. Ministry of Home Affairs has included the following items and norms of assistance under SDRF and NDRF-

Item - Hiring of vehicles, tractors with spray equipments for spraying of plant protection chemicals for pest control; hiring of water tankers; and purchase of plant protection chemicals for locust control.

Norm- The quantum of assistance will be limited to the actual expenditure incurred on these items. However, expenditure   should not exceed 25% of SDRF allocation for the year.