In the Aral district of the Kyzylorda region, farmers are facing a massive locust infestation. The situation is particularly difficult in the villages of Karakum and Abai.
According to Ulysmedia.kz, local agricultural workers claim that the pests have destroyed a significant portion of pastureland in a short time, threatening the safety of the livestock.
“For the last week we have been witnessing an unprecedented locust invasion. In a short time, the pests have destroyed our pasture - what will our livestock do now? The treatment against locusts is not having the expected effect. We don’t know what to do next,” said farmer Faizulla Kairullaev.
According to him, agricultural workers are forced to fight locusts every year, but this year the number of insects is particularly high. The costs of disinsection are too high, and technical and organisational resources on the ground are limited.
Farmer Abzal Asanbaev believes that there would be far fewer pests if the local administration had carried out pest control in a timely manner.
“The authorities have again ignored preventive measures. Chemical treatment is currently underway, but we are not seeing any results. The contractor arrived here with five specialised vehicles, but only two of them are working. This situation repeats every year,” complained farmer Abzal Asanbaev.
Meanwhile, the regional territorial inspectorate assures that the fight against locusts is being carried out according to schedule. In the region, they plan to cover more than 60,000 hectares, of which 24,000 hectares will be against the Italian locust, and over 35,000 hectares against the Asian locust.
“In the Aral district, treatment of land against locusts began on May 13. Four units of equipment have been allocated for the region; we are now renting machines from the residents themselves. Due to gusty winds, it has not been possible to launch hang gliders. The situation is now under the personal control of the inspectorate,” the department responded.
Local residents fear that procedures are being delayed while the locusts continue to destroy pastures. According to them, several years ago the region already experienced mass livestock deaths due to drought, and the current situation could lead to similar consequences.
Meanwhile, the press service of the Ministry of Agriculture claims that videos circulating online about the massive spread of locusts are unreliable.
“Unreliable reports and video materials about the supposedly massive and uncontrolled spread of locusts continue to appear on the internet and in the media. Such information does not correspond to the actual situation or the current stage of locust development,” the statement said.
The department threatened that, in accordance with current legislation, liability is provided for the dissemination of false information.
“We urge you to be guided only by official sources of information — the resources of the Ministry of Agriculture and regional administrations, and to refrain from publishing unverified data and deliberate disinformation,” the ministry writes.
It is worth noting that recently, agricultural expert Kirill Pavlov was scheduled for a court hearing after a publication about the scale of the locust invasion in Kazakhstan. The Ministry of Agriculture filed a statement against him, accusing him of spreading false information on social networks, which led to the initiation of an administrative case under Article 456-2, Part 3 of the Administrative Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan (“Placement and dissemination of false information by users of online platforms”).
Pavlov claims that his analysis is based solely on official data from the Ministry of Agriculture itself. He expressed surprise at the police’s attention to authors of publications about locusts and noted that the ministry will now have to justify the objectivity of its data and prove that his publications are incorrect.