China to send 100,000-strong ‘duck army’ to help Pakistan fight its worst locust plague in 20 years
- The legion of birds will be dispatched from Zhejiang Province, eastern China
- They are of a native breed billed as the ‘locust-killing genius’, local paper said
- China deployed ducks to fight a similar infestation in Xinjiang two decades ago
- Comes after Beijing sent a team of experts to Pakistan to advise on the plague
China is planning to dispatch a 100,000-strong ‘army of ducks’ to help Pakistan combat a massive locust infestation.
The legion of lotus-eating waterfowl will be sent from the eastern province of Zhejiang, reported a local newspaper.
The news comes after Beijing dispatched a team of Chinese experts to Pakistan to advise on a response to the infestation that is being called the worst in 20 years.
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China will send 100,000 ducks from its eastern province of Zhejiang to Pakistan (file photo)
The teams of birds are of a native breed called ‘No. 1 Guoshao’, which is billed as the ‘locust-killing genius’, the Ningbo Evening News said today.
China deployed ducks, whose natural diet includes insects, to fight a similar infestation in its northwestern region of Xinjiang two decades ago, with considerable effectiveness, the report said.
Their use is both much less expensive and environmentally damaging than the use of pesticides, the paper quoted Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Agricultural Technology researcher Lu Lizhi as saying.
Africa has also been ravaged by several locust outbreaks. A picture taken near Isiolo town in Isiolo county, Kenya, shows locust nymphs aggregated on the ground at a hatch site Tuesday
Ducks are also more suited to the task than other poultry, such as chickens, Lu said.
‘Ducks like to stay in a group, so they’re easier to manage than chickens,’ he said. A duck is also capable of eating more than 200 locusts per day, compared to just 70 for a chicken, Lu said.
‘They have three-times the combat capability,’ he added.
Calls to the provincial government press office seeking confirmation of the report rang unanswered Thursday and a number provided for the publicity department at the agricultural sciences institute was constantly engaged.
Pakistan was invaded by the locust swarm last year, which proceeded to lay waste to the country’s cotton crop and is now menacing the wheat harvest.
Africa has also been ravaged by several locust outbreaks.
A small group of desert locusts has entered Congo, marking the first time the voracious insects have been seen in the Central African country since 1944, a U.N. agency said
Kenya, Somalia and Uganda have been battling the swarms in the worst locust outbreak that parts of East Africa have seen in 70 years. A picture taken on February 25 at a hatch site near Isiolo town in Isiolo county, eastern Kenya, shows locust nymphs aggregated on the ground
A small group of desert locusts has entered Congo, marking the first time the voracious insects have been seen in the Central African country since 1944, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Agency said Tuesday.
U.N. agencies warned of a ‘major hunger threat’ in East Africa from the flying pests.
Kenya, Somalia and Uganda have been battling the swarms in the worst locust outbreak that parts of East Africa have seen in 70 years.
The U.N. said swarms have also been sighted in Djibouti, Eritrea and Tanzania and recently reached South Sudan, a country where roughly half the population already faces hunger after years of civil war.