- A multinational problem
Plagues, it seems, know no boundaries. It is almost as if they force states divided by lines drawn on maps to cooperate even if they are rivals. Such is the stark choice facing India and Pakistan, who, along with Iran, must cooperate, to fend off this locust plague, which has come on top of covid-19 pandemic. It should not be ignored that all three countries face a decline in agricultural production because of the pandemic, which would threaten food security for well over a billion people. The locust swarms pose a similar threat. They have already badly affected the states of Maharashtra, Gujrat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in India, and are expected to cause devastation, if left unchecked, in Pakistan, especially Punjab and Sindh. As the main food crop, wheat, is being harvested, it is food security that is coming under the greatest threat. As a matter of fact, the food security of all three countries would be threatened even if there wasn’t a pandemic raging, but with that factor added in, the possibility of the sort of food shortages that made British India subject to so many famines recurring, cannot be ruled out.
Pakistan and India do cooperate under the aegis of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, but cooperation needs to be enhanced. India must not fall prey to the temptation of concealing information from Pakistan about swarm movements on the specious excuse of ‘national security.’ The locusts are the type of cross-border terrorists who cannot be kept out with a fence.
Locust swarms are not unknown, the last one being in 1983, but there was no other threat (like covid-19 today) in the background. However, the kind of rivalry between India and Pakistan should not be allowed to come in the way of fighting off this menace, which is as much of an existential threat as any pandemic. The entire world, though no doubt distracted, should pay attention, because there will be global consequences to any inability of India, Pakistan and Iran facing locust-induced crop failures. The global price of wheat will go up, as these exporters either import or cut exports. With the pandemic, that would be multiply destabilizing. Both countries must also adopt a firmer stand on global warming, which has played such a key role in both pandemic and plague.
