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THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020
LAHORE, PAKISTAN(AFP) -Chickens
in Pakistan have been feasting on
captured locusts under an initiative
to combat swarms of the insects
that are threatening food supplies
in the impoverished country.
Prime Minister Imran Khan
has endorsed plans to expand a
pilot project in the bread-basket
province of Punjab, where villagers
earned cash to gather locusts that
were then dried out, shredded and
added into poultry feed.
Farmers are struggling as
the worst locust plague in 25
years wipes out entire harvests
in Pakistan’s agricultural heart-
lands, leaving people scrambling
for income.
Muhammad Khurshid from
Pakistan’s Food Ministry and Bio-
technologist Johar Ali set up the
programme, drawing on efforts
in war-ravaged Yemen, where au-
thorities have encouraged people
to eat the protein-rich locusts
amid famine.
The pair chose Punjab’s
Okara district, where farmers
had not used any pesticides that
would make locusts unsuitable
for consumption.
“We irst had to learn, and then
teach the locals how to catch the
locusts. Nets are useless against
them,” Khurshid told AFP.
At night the creatures cluster on
trees and plants, making them easy
to scoop up as they lie motionless
in the cooler temperatures until the
sun begins to rise.
For a reward of PKR20 (12 cents)
per kilogramme of locusts, locals
worked all night to collect them.
One farmer who lost all her
crops to the insects said she and
her son earned PKR1,600 (USD10)
during a single locust-gathering
outing, helping to offset the
inancial damage.
Organisers struggled at irst to
convince farmers to join the hunt,
but by the third night word had
spread and hundreds joined in -
turning up with their own bags to
stuff full.
With 20 tonnes of captured
locusts, authorities ran out of
money to pay the collectors and
the programme was paused.
The ministry, which recently
announced the results of February’s
pilot, is now preparing to expand
the project to other locations.
The harvested locusts went to
Hi-Tech Feeds - Pakistan’s largest
animal-feed producer - which
substituted 10 per cent of the
soybean in its chicken food with
the insects.
“There was no issue with the
feed, the locusts have a good
potential for use in poultry feed,”
General Manager Muhammad
Athar said, after trying the modiied
product on 500 broiler hens.
While the project is not a
solution to the devastation caused
Pakistan battles locusts by turning them into
chicken feed
to crops, it can provide hard-hit
farmers with a fresh revenue stream
and relieve pressure on authorities
struggling to distribute locust-
beating pesticides.
Locust swarms have gnawed
their way through crops across East
Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and
parts of India this year, and experts
fear their numbers will explode as
monsoon rains arrive this month.
The crisis is so severe that
the government has declared
a nationwide emergency and
appealed for help from the
international community.
Bananas, mangoes, vegetables
and other crops are all vulnerable
- raising fears of food shortages
- as are the wheat and cotton
harvests that provide Pakistan with
vital revenue.
According to the UN’s Food and
Agriculture Organization, Pakistan
could suffer about USD5 billion in
losses if 25 per cent of its crops
are damaged. A reduced harvest
could also push prices up and risks
worsening food insecurity. About 20
per cent of the population are already
undernourished, withalmost half of all
childrenunderivestunted,according
to the World Food Programme.
MURCHISON FALLS, UGANDA (AFP)
- The boat edged as close as possi-
ble to the deafening surge of water
roaring over Murchison Falls, giving
tourists a hair-raising shot of one
of Africa’s awesome and terrifying
natural spectacles.
Tens of thousands visit north-
west Uganda every year to marvel
as the force of the Nile crashes into
a jungle-clad ravine. But a proposal
to build a hydroelectric dam nearby
has caused an uproar, and debate
over the merits of development at
all costs.
“I don’t agreewith putting a dam
on the Murchison Falls, although
I agree with the efforts at looking
for development investments in
whichever area that might be,” said
Ugandan tourist Paolo Kyama after
gaping at the 43-metre cascade.
“And reasons for my reserva-
tions about Murchison is that it is a
very unique tourist attraction.”
The government announced in
late November it would allow an in-
ternational consortium to explore the
feasibility of a 360-megawatt hydro
plant in Murchison Falls National
Park, a protected zone boasting wet-
lands of international importance.
The decision stunned conserva-
tionists, who just three months ear-
lier had been celebrating after the
government abandoned the conten-
tious project following a sustained
protest by tourism operators, green
activists and local communities.
Uproar as Uganda pursues plan to dam waterfall in national park
The government announced in late November it would allow an international consortium to explore the feasibility of a
360-megawatt hydro plant in Murchison Falls National Park, a protected zone boasting wetlands of international importance.
The new proposal looks at
damming Uhuru Falls, a smaller
cascade nearby, not Murchison
Falls as originally envisioned, the
government said.
Uhuru Falls is adjacent to Murchi-
son Falls on the Victoria Nile, separat-
ed by a narrow rocky strip.
It was formed in 1962 when pow-
erful loods cut a second channel
just upstream.
“We cannot just say no, or
yes, without a feasibility study.
So everything must be backed
up by science,” said Tourism Min-
ister Godfrey Kiwanda of the
policy reversal.
“What made Cabinet rescind
its position of just not saying no? It
was basically that let’s back our no
or yes with science,” he told AFP.
The feasibility study will be led
by Bonang Power and Energy, a
little-known South African com-
pany that was enlisted for the
irst proposal.
The amended plan makes little
difference to opponents of the
project, who say the two falls are in-
terconnected, and damming either
risks the health of the ecosystem
and its tourist appeal.
It would be a far cry from the
Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a
gigantic project on the Blue Nile that
when completed will be capable of
producing 6,000 megawatts, and is
iercely resisted by Egypt, which fears
its water supply could be at stake.
But waterfalls elsewhere along
the Nile have dried up and van-
ished in recent decades in the wake
of major hydropower ventures in
Uganda, which sources 80 per cent
of its electricity from its rivers.
The most recent was Karuma,
a once-grand cascade at the en-
trance to Murchison Falls National
Park. A mammoth 840-megawatt
plant slated for Ayago, another
set of falls further inside the park,
could become Uganda’s largest
hydro plant.
“We have lost so much. We
can’t lose everything... Why don’t
we spare this particular one? Are
we going to dot the entire Nile with
dams?” said Vice-President of the
Uganda Tour Operators Organisa-
tion Benedict Ntale.
Tourism is Uganda’s biggest
earner of foreign exchange, and
the industry generates close to 10
per cent of GDP.
Murchison Falls National Park
attracted 75,000 tourists in 2016,
making it the second-most visited
protected area in the country.
It served as the backdrop for the
1951 Hollywood adventure classic
The African Queen
starring Hum-
phrey Bogart and Katharine Hep-
burn, helping put it on the map.
“When you touch Murchison
Falls, or you take Murchison Falls
out of the equation of Uganda tour-
ism, then you kill the whole indus-
try,” said Ntale.
The view of the Uhuru Falls, one of the majestic natural sites in Africa where the government has a plan to build a
hydroelectric dam, on the Victoria Nile at Murchison Falls National Park, northwest Uganda. PHOTO: AFP
Locusts lying around the minaret of a mosque in Multan, Pakistan. PHOTO: AFP