Monday 06 / January / 2025
Muscat: The Directorate of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources in the South Al Sharqiyah has destroyed a total of 181 desert locust hotspots in the governorate.
The Directorate General of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources in the South Al Sharqiyah Governorate has destroyed 181 desert locust hotspots. The governorate is one of the hot spots for desert locust transit and spread, as it falls within the locust crossing from the Horn of Africa to India and Pakistan or vice versa.
Engineer Jassim Al-Hamidi, an agricultural extension specialist at the Directorate General of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources in the South Al Sharqiyah Governorate, said: "The latest weekly control report indicated that an exploratory area estimated at 2,000 hectares was surveyed and 181 hotspots with an area estimated at 237 hectares were combatted, and survey and control work is still continuing in the monitored areas."
Al Hamidi explained that the results of field surveys and monitoring carried out by the team indicate that environmental conditions are suitable for desert locust breeding due to good amount of rainfall in the recent period, which contributed to the growth and spread of vegetation over large areas in the governorate.
Al Hamidi stressed that the Ministry is making great efforts to develop survey and control operations. The Ministry is currently implementing experiments in using drones in pest control operations, through which it aims to facilitate surveying and pest control operations in terms of time and effort.
