Pakistani Abdul Zahir Hamad (R) makes preparation before getting into work at a highway exit checkpoint in Wenzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Feb. 8, 2020. (Xinhua/Weng Xinyang)
TRUE FRIENDSHIP
In Alvi's words, Pakistan and China are ironclad brothers who can go through thick and thin together, and the two peoples feel deep amity toward each other and the bilateral friendship becomes even firmer as time goes by.
China's assistance to Pakistan in handling its locust crisis is another stellar example. In Khushab, in the central Pakistani province of Punjab, Chinese entomologist Zhang Long kneeled on the sandy ground, carefully searching for desert locust eggs.
Zhang, from China Agriculture University, together with other top Chinese experts on locust control, arrived in Pakistan last month to help the south Asian country to fight its worst desert locust attack in 27 years.
Zhang and his team traveled thousands of miles to conduct field surveys in the provinces of Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab, where swarms of desert locusts laid eggs, and worked out a comprehensive plan with their Pakistani counterparts to tackle the locust crisis.
The locust swarms led to a 15-percent reduction in crop production in the affected areas, causing a loss of more than 100 billion Pakistani rupees (about 627.3 million U.S. dollars), according to Mubarak Ahmad, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' national locust control coordinator in Pakistan.
"We came here to help our Pakistani brothers control the locusts. Pakistan also extended a hand when we were suffering the epidemic," said Wang Fengle, chief expert of the Chinese team.
Last week, the first batch of locust control supplies provided by the Chinese government, including 50,000 liters of malathion and 14 air-powered long-range sprayers, arrived in the Pakistani port city of Karachi.
"Chinese experts have offered new hope to farmers, because they are confident that China's assistance will enable them to save their crop," said Syed Miran Muhammad Shah, president of Sindh Chamber of Agriculture.
