India supplies 20,000 litres of pesticides to Iran to fight desert locusts menace

Date:03-19-2021

India has delivered 20,000 litres of the pesticide Malathion to Iran via the strategic Chabahar port to help mount a coordinated regional response to the threat posed by swarms of desert locusts.

This was the second consignment of Malathion, a 95% ultra-low volume pesticide, supplied to Iran under a government-to-government locust control programme, the external affairs ministry said on Thursday.

The consignment was handed over to Iran’s Plant Protection Organization on March 18.

Last year, India had approached Iran and Pakistan for a coordinated regional response to the threat of desert locusts. “It was in this context that Iran had requested the supply of pesticides. There was no response from Pakistan,” the external affairs ministry said.

India supplied the first consignment of 20,000 litres of Malathion to Iran in June 2020.

Iran is using the pesticide to control locust populations in Sistan-Balochistan and South Khorasan provinces, people familiar with developments said on condition of anonymity.