Agriculture minister reviews crop damage due to locust attack in Haryana

CHANDIGARH: Haryana agriculture and farmers’ welfare minister JP Dalal visited the fields of village Bohatwas Bhondu and Parkhotampur in Jatusana block of the district Rewari on Saturday morning to review the steps taken to prevent locust attack on crops.
The agriculture minister assured the farmers that the damage done to crops due to locust attack is being assessed by the administration.
Dalal said that since the locust had entered India from Pakistan about six months ago, the Haryana government had started advance preparations to deal with the locust attack.The locust first made their way to Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and now have entered Haryana. He said that the State Government has made extensive arrangements to protect the crops of farmers.
Deputy Commissioner, Rewari, Yashendra Singh apprised the minister that the locusts had entered district Rewari from district Mahendragarh at around 5pm on Friday and stayed in the villages around Jatusana at night. All the preparations had already been done by the administration. Fire tenders, spray machines, mounted tractors were provided for spraying the medicine. A control room was set up to provide advance information to the farmers and munadi was also done in the villages. Experts were called from the Central Government and the Centre has also sent two spraying machines.
He also said that there has been a lot of relief due to advance preparations and spray has succeeded in killing about 30 to 35 per cent locusts. The locust was spread over ten kilometers in length and six kilometers in width, he added.