North China Province Curbing Locust PlaguesNorth China's Shanxi Province is now facing plagues of locusts.The provincial government has spent 700,000 yuan (about 84,000 US dollars) and 20 tons of locust pesticides in seriously- stricken areas. Most of the 400,000 hectares of affected farmland are in poor mountainous areas. The Ministry of Agriculture has also allocated special funds to deal with the locusts. More than 10,000 people have been mobilized and 10 airplanes used to rid the province of locusts. According to official sources, plagues of locusts from East Asia have destroyed 930,000 ha of crops in Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Anhui, Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces and Tianjin Municipality. More than 2 million ha of farmland have been hit by Italian locusts in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China. Agricultural experts said that the total coverage of farmland hit by locusts will probably expand from over 2 million to 3.3 million ha this summer. |
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