China may deploy 100,000 ducks to its neighboring country Pakistan to help battle the swarms of crop-eating locusts devastating the country.
Earlier this week, China announced that it was sending a team of experts to Pakistan to develop "targeted programs" against the locusts, which included the possibility of deploying ducks.
Pakistan declared a state of emergency earlier this month, claiming that locust numbers were the worst in more than two decades. A similar locust problem is also being faced by farmers in East Africa.
The proposal to send ducks to Pakistan was made by an agricultural expert who claims that a single duck can eat more than 200 locusts a day and can be more effective than pesticides. However, the effectiveness of ducks was questioned by another researcher.
According to Lu Lizhi, a senior researcher with the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, ducks can be considered "biological weapons". He pointed out that while chickens could devour about 70 locusts in one day, a duck could eat more than three times that number.
He added: "Ducks like to stay in a group so they are easier to manage than chickens." Lu mentioned that a trial involving the ducks will be conducted in China's western Xinjiang province in the coming months.
After the test, the ducks will be sent to the worst-affected areas of Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab provinces of Pakistan.
The proposal to use ducks to address the locust problem in Pakistan has gained popularity on Chinese social media. One Weibo user posted: "Go, ducks! I hope you come back alive," while another wrote: "Heroic ducks in harm's way!" parodying the phrase commonly used for medical staff addressing the coronavirus outbreak
However, Zhang Long, a professor from the China Agriculture University who is part of the delegation to Pakistan, questioned the suitability of ducks to the mainly arid conditions of areas affected by the locusts.
He said: "Ducks rely on water, but in Pakistan's desert areas, the temperature is very high."
