TEHRAN, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Sunday called on Saudi Arabia to contribute more to a fight against the locust plague that threatens crops and food security in the region, Press TV reported.
Red Sea countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, should help Iran collectively fight locust swarms this year that could affect thousands of hectares of more agricultural lands, Mohammad Reza Dargahi, head of Iran's Plant Protection Organization, was quoted as saying.
Iran is currently fighting the plague in around 45,000 hectares of land in six provinces across the south of the country, according to Dargahi.
On March 10, Iran announced that huge herds of desert locust had arrived in the southern region of Iran.
The first generation of desert locusts attacked Iran in April 2019, when the provinces of Hormozgan, Sistan and Baluchestan, Khuzestan, Bushehr, Fars, Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad, South Khorasan and Ilam were swarmed by the pests.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has predicted that locust swarms could also invade Iran's central province of Kerman and Jazmourian Wetland, an inland basin in southeastern Iran, in their new wave of migration.
