The recent outbreak of desert locusts in Pakistan has severely affected the country’s agricultural production and food security, and also raised concerns of the Chinese government. Upon Pakistan’s needs to curb the outbreak, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China, joined by other competent Chinese authorities, formulated an aid plan to assist Pakistan in desert locust prevention and control. The Ministry sent a work team to Pakistan on February 23, who arrived in Karachi, Pakistan on February 24.      

The work team is supposed to carry out field studies in Pakistan's Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab provinces and provide technical support for dessert locust control. The members of the team were designated by Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Department of Grassland Management of the National Forestry and Grassland Bureau, the National Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center, China Agricultural University and Shandong Plant Protection Station.