Chinese Government provides RMB 29.5 million grant for Desert Locust Control Project

Following the locust attacks in the provinces of eastern Punjab, southwest Balochistan and northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2019, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan imposed a national emergency on locust control and asked Pakistan’s Ministry of National Food Security and Research to seek help from the Chinese Government.

Xu Yubo, an official with the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, told media at the time that Chinese locust control technology and experience could address Pakistan's desert locust control needs and that the Chinese Government was ready to cooperate in the fields of technology, pesticide equipment support, personnel training, advance prevention and control technology appliances, and the establishment of monitoring and early warning platforms.

Then, on April 28, 2019, the Chinese Government and the Government of Pakistan signed letters of exchange, which committed RMB 29.5 million grant funding for a Desert Locust Control Project. The purpose of the project was to deliver a set of desert locust control goods to the Government of Pakistan.

A handover certificate for the donated materials was issued on December 21, 2020.