Locust plague sweeps across South Sulawesi

Locust plague sweeps across South Sulawesi

Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Makassar

Vast swarms of locusts have swept over South Sulawesi in the past
few days, destroying rice and secondary crops. The plague has
devastated thousands of hectares of crops in Jeneponto, Gowa and
Maros regencies. Some farmers were forced to harvest early,
causing losses of billions of rupiah.

The hardest hit area was Jeneponto regency, where about 8,000
hectares of rice and secondary crops have been ravaged by the
locusts. Some 1,000 hectares of rice and 670 hectares of soybean
plantations have been destroyed, while thousands of hectares will
suffer a significant drop in harvest volume.

In Gowa and Maros regencies, at least 2,000 hectares of rice
had to be harvested prematurely to prevent further losses.

Apart from locusts, snails and rats have also attacked rice
crops in neighboring Pinrang regency, where 4,500 hectares were
destroyed.

Head of the Jeneponto Food Crops Office, Rachmansyah Guntur,
said the locust plague had affected rice and secondary crops in
10 districts, the worst-hit areas being in Tamalatea and
Bontorama. Around 1,000 hectares of rice paddy in two districts
were totally destroyed, causing losses of around Rp 4 billion.

Nearly all the rice and secondary crops in the Bontoramba
district of Jeneponto regency and the Biring Bulu and Bonto
Marannu districts of Gowa regency were ruined by the locusts.

Farmers in Bontoramba said that locust plagues had occurred
every year for the past three years, but this year's attack was
the worst, because they had also ravaged secondary crops like
corn, soybean and leguminous plants.

Abdul Karim, a farmer from Lanrea, Bontoramba district, said
that he could do nothing on seeing his rice crop being attacked
by locusts.

His blossoming rice crop had been completely eaten up by the
locusts. The farmer, who owns a three-hectare farm, said he had
done everything possible to eradicate the pests, such as spraying
various kinds of pesticides, but to no avail. Their numbers had
even multiplied.

Rachmansyah also expressed his difficulty in eradicating the
pests because they would fly away and move to other locations
during spraying.

According to Rachmansyah, the most efficient way to eradicate
locusts was by spraying from the air. But this was not easy to do
and required specialized equipment, including aircraft.